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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE RECOVERY AND RESTATE- 
MENT OF THE GOSPEL 



The 

Recovery & Restatement 

of the Gospel 



BY 



LORAN DAVID OSBORN, Ph.D. 



» 



CHICAGO 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Received j 

AUG 6 1903 

Copyright Entry 
W^iAr'LO - I °\ 3 
CLASS V «~ XXc No. 

Uo **£ 

COPY 8. 






COPYRIGHT I9O3 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 



To R. R. O. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Preface - - xi 

Introduction xv 

PART I. THE RECOVERY OF THE GOSPEL. 

Chapter I. The Modern Spirit and its Search for 

Reality 3 

I. The modern spirit and modern culture - 4 

II. The modern spirit and Christianity 12 

Chapter II. The Obscuration of the Gospel in the 

Course of its Historical Development - - 19 

I. The early transformation of Christianity - - 19 

The ecclesiastical transformation - 20 

The theological transformation ... 27 

II. From Origen to the Reformation 36 

III. The obscuration of the gospel resulting from the 

early transformation of Christianity - - 40 

The radical character of the change 40 

The eclipse of the personal element in the gospel 47 

The moral eclipse of the gospel ... 59 

Chapter III. The Historical Recovery of the 

Gospel 67 

I. The Lutheran Reformation .... 68 
II. The post-Reformation re-eclipse of the gospel - 73 
The survival of Greco-Catholic dogmatics in Prot- 
estantism - 73 

The new emphasis placed upon theology - - 79 
The formal principle of the Reformation displaces 

the material principle in importance - - 81 

The dogmatic system is read back into the Bible - 83 

The new element in the post-Reformation eclipse 85 
vii 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGB 

III. The nineteenth-century reformation - 89 

The return to the Christian records 90 

The popular reopening of the Bible - - 95 

The scientific reopening of the Bible 98 

Chapter IV. The Recovered Gospel of the New 

Testament 113 

I. Attitude of modern exegesis toward the New 

Testament literature 113 

II. The gospel of Jesus - - - - - 117 

Jesus of Nazareth the Mediator of salvation - 118 

God the Heavenly Father the Author of salvation 122 

The nature and conditions of salvation - - 123 

1. Salvation as the kingdom of God - - 123 

2. Salvation as eternal life .... 129 
III. Conclusions -- 132 

1. The New Testament terminology - - - 132 

2. The true nature of the gospel - - - 135 

PART II. THE RESTATEMENT OF THE GOSPEL. 

Chapter I. The Gospel and Theology - - - 153 

I. The nature of theological statement - - 154 

II. The value of theological statement - - - 159 

III. The right of theological restatement - - 170 

IV. The need of theological restatement at the present 

time 176 

Chapter II. The Gospel Restated: A Suggested 

Theological System 185 

I. The governing position of Jesus Christ in theology 187 

1. Theology must be loyal to the thought of Jesus 187 

2. Corollary: the place of the Bible in Christianity 187 

3. Statement of the theme of theology - - 197 
II. Jesus Christ the Mediator of eternal life - - 197 

The mission of Jesus ----- 197 

The person of Christ 201 

III. God the Author and Source of eternal life - 205 



CONTENTS ix 

PAGE 

IV. Man the recipient of eternal life - - - 207 

The origin and nature of man ... 207 

The origin and nature of sin - - - - 211 

V. The nature and conditions of eternal life - 213 

The nature of eternal life - - - - - 214 

Entrance into eternal life - - - - 214 

The continuance of life 218 

The result and reward of eternal life - - 221 

VI. Eternal life and the kingdom of God • - 222 

The organic nature of the kingdom of God - 223 

Relations within the kingdom of God - - - 223 

The law of the kingdom .... 225 

How the law of the kingdom is fulfilled - - 227 

The progress and consummation of the kingdom 232 

Chapter III. Conclusion 240 

The change of center in theology - - - 240 
The view advocated explains the situation, both 

historically ------- 244 

and practically 247 



PREFACE. 

This book is the product of thinking and ex- 
perience, rather than of reading. It is not to be 
inferred that the author has not adequately in- 
formed himself concerning the questions of fact 
involved, or that he has failed to read what 
others have said about the interpretation of those 
facts. What is meant is that the subject has 
been worked out in vital connection with the 
author's mental and spiritual development, and 
that his thinking has kept in advance of his 
reading. For this reason, as well as because of 
the wide range of the subject and the demands 
of a busy pastorate, the book has been in prepa-: 
ration during the past five years. It has been 
in typewritten form for two years, with an altera- 
tion now and then to bring it more closely into 
touch with new conceptions of truth and the 
practical aspects of religion which a pastor con- 
tinually meets. The thought in mind has been 
not merely, Is it true ? but also, Will it work ? 
The result of the waiting, with its theological 
clinical work and added reading, has not materi- 
ally changed the conclusions. 

A significant statement appears in a recent 
book: "If I mistake not, the unrest of the time 



xii PREFACE 

is less a revolt against the content of traditional 
beliefs than anxiety to find some way of being 
sure of something. The great question is not 
whether this or that doctrine is true, but rather 
where a starting-point is to be found, and how 
we are to distinguish the true from the false." 1 
We do not want opinions, but facts. Christian 
truth at first hand is being sought and found to- 
day in three great fields of study: psychology, in 
the widest sense, including investigations in the 
schools and in practical religious and social serv- 
ice ; New Testament exegesis ; and the history 
of the church and of theology. The present book 
scarcely touches the first of these fields. For 
myself, that which brought order out of chaos 
and became the guiding thread of constructive 
work was the turning from contemporary the- 
ology, where there are such widely differing 
opinions, back to the New Testament, in an 
earnest and open-minded desire to understand its 
teachings. I then found myself forced into the 
history of interpretation and of theology, as well 
as into a study of the formation of the New Testa- 
ment canon. In a word, touch with reality was 
gained and a starting-point found in turning from 
the theological to the historical method of study. 
This, in turn, brought me back to the pres- 
ent theological problem. May I quote again, 

1 G. A. Coe, The Religion of a Mature Mind, p. 62. 



PREFACE xiii 

from a recent article? "To those who have 
fought their way through from irrational and op- 
pressive beliefs there is a freedom in the new- 
found position that is full of exhilaration. We 
imagine that it is the content of the new that sus- 
tains us, whereas it is in reality the sense of vic- 
tory over the old. The great religious problem 
before us is how to cast out the errors of an out- 
worn creed and yet hold fast to its truths — how 
to avoid what the Germans call emptying the 
child out with the bath." 1 The negative victory 
will not long prove sufficient. And while the non- 
theological attitude of a purely spiritual appropri- 
ation of the great religious truths of the Bible 
will satisfy for a longer time, and some minds 
permanently, the thoughtful mind is impelled 
sooner or later to the farther step of articulating 
the religious truths of the New Testament and of 
experience into a system of thinking that will 
bring them into correlation with the rest of human 
knowledge. 

And when once a man has gotten back to the 
constructive problem, he is often surprised to 
find how near he is to the place from which he 
started. He realizes that it is the same great 
truth that has been struggling for expression 
through the ages, and he comes to have a new 

X T. D. Bacon, "The Coming Religious Problem," in The 
Outlook, March 21, 1903. 



xiv PREFACE 

respect for the old historic creeds, even though 
he cannot accept them as final ; for they are now 
perceived to have been at one time living words 
spoken from earnest human souls engaged in the 
same quest as his own. Yet the difference be- 
tween the new position and the old is a real one, 
nevertheless. It is the difference between travel- 
ing the road for ourselves and taking someone's 
description of it. It is the difference between 
learning what others have said and saying things 
ourselves. But more than this, there is a new 
point of view, a different emphasis, a better 
proportion, an assimilation of the world's grow- 
ing knowledge, a vital expression in contem- 
porary speech — and these are much. It has 
been worth while. 

This experience of mine is, if I mistake not, 
the experience of many; is, indeed, typical of 
our age. The restless spirit passes along the 
way of vital religious experience on to the con- 
structive task. It is in the hope that the result 
of my own struggle, put into just this form, may 
help others to the intellectual and spiritual rest 
which I have found, that this book is published. 
It does not settle the questions involved in 
Christian thinking; they never will be settled. 
But it takes an attitude toward them, giving both 
present satisfaction and room for indefinite 
growth. This is worth even more. 

Bloomington, III., May, 1903. 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE QUESTION STATED. 

The purpose of the following pages is to show 
how the gospel of Jesus has become obscured 
during the course of its historical development, 
and that it is therefore necessary to go back of 
this in order to recover the gospel which he taught ; 
and further, that, inasmuch as the world's culture 
has radically changed during the centuries since 
Christianity received its first dogmatic expression, 
this recovered gospel needs restatement in terms 
of modern thought and life. 

In asserting that the gospel has been ob- 
scured, no one would claim that it has ever 
been wholly lost. During even the darkest of 
the centuries it has still been a mighty power in 
the world. It has transformed lives and deter- 
mined the destiny of nations. It has leavened 
society, influenced the movements of thought, 
and produced a civilization that is at least semi- 
Christian. 

Yet there are good reasons for suspecting that 
a real obscuration has taken place. As thought is 
handed down from age to age it tends to become 
dead and stereotyped tradition. The new gen- 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

eration attempts to appropriate the statements 
of the former time, but life has moved on and 
the old forms of expression no longer possess 
vital force. Again, when Christianity entered 
the world, it came into an alien and unfriendly 
environment. In process of time it was modified 
by these outside influences, and lost something 
of its original power. Yet again, the gospel 
came at first in the form of life and speech. It 
had to be reduced to writing and brought into 
relation to the world's thought. Then, as it 
came into contact with the nations, this original 
literature was translated into other languages. 
Thus the gospel has been subject to radical 
transplantings as it has been transferred from the 
soil of Jewish life and forms of thought to that 
of Greek, Roman, German, and English life and 
culture. It has been called upon to pass out of 
one civilization into an entirely different one, in 
coming from the ancient to the modern world. 
It would be strange, indeed, if this long and 
intricate process had not affected Christianity 
and caused later conceptions of the gospel to 
depart from the original. Hence, on a priori 
grounds alone, we should expect that, after 
eighteen hundred years of such a history, the 
gospel would have become obscured. 

If we turn now to the great claims that 
Christianity makes, and reflect upon its com- 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

parative failure to vindicate them, we arrive 
at the same conclusion. Jesus Christ came 
into the world to save it. It remains unsaved. 
He came in order that on earth God's kingdom 
might come and his will be done as in heaven. 
God's will is not done on earth, nor is his king- 
dom triumphant. Making all possible allowance 
for the magnitude of the task, and giving full 
recognition to what has been accomplished, still 
something is radically wrong, that after nearly 
two thousand years the claims of the gospel 
have been fulfilled in so small a measure. The 
institutional life of the world remains almost 
untouched organically. What is at fault ? Are 
we mistaken in thinking that God was in Christ 
reconciling the world unto himself ? Is not the 
gospel in reality the power of God unto salva- 
tion ? There are good reasons for suspecting 
that the difficulty lies, at least partially, in the 
fact that the gospel has been obscured and mis- 
conceived, and so has led to misdirected energy 
on the part of God's people. 

The probability of an obscuration of the 
gospel, suggested by the above considerations, 
becomes a certainty when we compare modern 
Christianity with the Christianity of the New 
Testament. The one is characterized by form- 
alism and intellectualism, the other by freedom 
and spiritual power. When a man once escapes 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

from the persistent fiction that Protestantism, as 
a matter of course, is a perfect reproduction of 
New Testament Christianity, then the more he 
works his way into New Testament thought and 
the better he understands modern Christianity, 
the more clearly does he see the gulf between 
the two. 

Moreover, as we follow back the history of 
Christianity we are able to discover just where 
and when and how this disastrous obscuration 
actually occurred, and in what it consists. It 
took place in the formative period of the first 
three centuries, and was a radical secularizing of 
the gospel. The institutional eclipse of the gos- 
pel during that time, resulting from the forma- 
tion of the Catholic church, with its hierarchical 
priesthood and ecclesiastical salvation, is now 
generally recognized throughout the Protestant 
world. The great Reformation of the sixteenth 
century was directed against that error. The 
issue now hinges upon the question whether 
during the same period there occurred a theo- 
logical eclipse which has persisted until the pres- 
ent time. Was the theological development of 
that formative period the legitimate unfolding 
of the gospel of Jesus, or did it transform the 
nature of that gospel by the introduction of new 
and incongruous elements ? In the early adjust- 
ment of Christianity to contemporary thought, 



INTRODUCTION xix 

accomplished in the formation of the first Chris- 
tian theology, did the gospel become so identi- 
fied with this theology as to be changed in 
essential character from a life of faith, affecting 
the whole nature of man, to assent to a body of 
philosophical knowledge, affecting chiefly his 
intellectual life? 

In other words, stated in present terms, the 
question is this : What is it to be a Christian? 
Does it consist in, or necessarily involve, the 
acceptance of the traditional dogmatic theology 
of the church, or does it consist solely in con- 
fident trust in Christ and loyal obedience to his 
will? What is Christianity in its essential na- 
ture? A life of faith, or a creed? Or is it a 
faith plus a creed ? 

This problem is fundamental. The issue here 
is not the difficulty that one generation finds in 
entering into the thought of another, nor the 
difficulty of translating thought from one lan- 
guage to another. It lies deeper. It has to do, 
not with the outside or accidental aberrations of 
the gospel, but with its inner and essential 
nature. At the present time no other theo- 
logical question can compare with this in impor- 
tance. Either consciously or unconsciously it 
lies at the very heart of the modern theological 
ferment. There will be no peace, and there ought 
to be none, until a thorough investigation has 



xx INTRODUCTION 

brought clearly to light the true nature of the 
gospel proclaimed by Christianity. 

The answer to this question is not easily 
found. Our first thought would be to go 
directly to the written documents of the primi- 
tive period, as contained in the New Testament. 
But we soon discover that these also have had a 
history, which must be understood before their 
contents can be justly estimated. Moreover, 
they were written under definite historical condi- 
tions, which render them subject to the ordinary 
laws of historical and literary criticism. The 
records depend upon the historical events which 
precede them ; the history itself is primary. 
And this history is not isolated, but is most 
intimately related to the whole complex en- 
vironment of the times. Thus is imposed the 
task of reproducing the history of New Testament 
times, in both its narrower and its wider circles, 
if we would rightly interpret the New Testament 
records. 

A further difficulty exists in the fact that we 
are living in the intellectual and religious atmos- 
phere that is itself the result of the hereditary 
complex of ideas formed by the long course of 
history that separates us from the New Testa- 
ment times. We see the New Testament through 
this atmosphere ; and hence there is a strong 
tendency to read it in the light of its traditional 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

interpretation. But this is the theological inter- 
pretation, which is itself a part of the very obscu- 
ration that we are trying to locate. Later 
theological ideas, and new meanings acquired by 
words during the historical development of Chris- 
tianity, are unconsciously reflected back into the 
Bible and attached to its language. The diffi- 
culty can be overcome only by getting outside of 
the traditional theological environment. Just as 
the scientist in his experiments makes allowance 
for the personal equation, so here we must reckon 
with this theological equation. We must work 
our way back to the New Testament, and learn to 
read it in the light of the age in which it was 
written. 

For these reasons, therefore, to decide what 
original Christianity was is not so simple and 
direct a task as it might seem. It involves a 
knowledge of the New Testament that will do 
justice to the historical environment in which it 
was written, and an understanding of the history 
of Christianity that will make possible a just 
estimate of the influence of the post-biblical 
development. 

These are the two tasks that are being accom- 
plished, respectively, in the sciences of modern 
biblical exegesis and church history. The one 
attempts to understand the New Testament as 
interpreted by the canons of historical criticism; 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

the other, by unveiling the later development, 
discovers what has been added to Christianity, 
and when and how these additions were effected. 
All the work in these departments has not yet 
been completed, but the main conclusions are 
well enough established so that they can be 
brought to bear upon the problem of the re- 
covery of the gospel. 

While we might begin with the conclusions of 
either of these sciences, there is a distinct ad- 
vantage in considering the historical development 
first. To trace the progress of Christian thought 
prepares the mind for a more unprejudiced con- 
sideration of its beginnings, by disclosing the 
allowance that must be made for what we have 
called the theological equation. Yet these 
two, the study of New Testament teaching and 
the consideration of its development in history, 
cannot be kept entirely separate. We have to 
begin with something. We cannot really trace 
the stream backward, but must start tentatively 
at the source, follow it down, and then, with the 
new knowledge gained, go back and more fully 
explore the sources. The first of these tasks is 
attempted in chaps, ii and iii, the second in chap, 
iv ; while chap, i discusses the spirit that ani- 
mates the entire modern religious movement. 

The historical process described in these chap- 
ters is nowhere in a straight line. It is much 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

involved, and the movement is sometimes well- 
nigh lost in the confusing interplay of forces and 
the multiplicity of details. If the matter seems 
presented more clearly in this discussion than in 
the history itself, it is because the logical signifi- 
cance of the movement is clearer than the chrono- 
logical sequence of events. 

The theme of Part I is, thus, the recovery 
of the Christian gospel. Part II deals with the 
problem of the restatement of that gospel in 
modern language. Much confusion is avoided 
by keeping the two questions distinct. 

The necessity for this restatement of Christian- 
ity arises from the change in the world's culture. 
The right to make such a restatement lies in the 
fact that theology is only the human science of 
Christianity. It should be borne in mind that a new 
theology does not mean a new gospel. The dog- 
matic statement of Christianity is extra-biblical 
and post-biblical. It therefore has none of the 
divine sanction and authority attaching to the 
gospel itself. Theology, having been made by 
men, may be remade by other men. But the case is 
different with the gospel. What we are contend- 
ing for is the old gospel — an older gospel, indeed, 
than the church has had for many centuries ; 
older than Calvin and Augustine; older than Ath- 
anasius and Origen ; even as old as Jesus Christ, 
its divine founder. Yet we also maintain that, if 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

the church is to have any dogmatic expression of 
this gospel at all, it should be in the terms of 
thought of the twentieth century, rather than of 
the fourth or the sixteenth. One of the greatest 
needs of our day is the old gospel expressed in a 
new theology. 

A few words should be said concerning the 
limits of the discussion undertaken in the follow- 
ing pages. The task that the author has set for 
himself is not an apologetic one. No attempt is 
made to prove the finality of the Christian 
religion To make that proof would require 
a book along an entirely different line. Only 
two things are attempted: first, the recovery 
of primitive Christianity by a just estimate of 
the nature and extent of its obscuration during 
the course of history, and a study of the New 
Testament sources; and, second, the restatement 
of Christianity in terms of modern thought. So 
far as the main argument is concerned, there is 
no more certainty that primitive Christianity, even 
after it has been recovered, is the ultimate religion 
thanthatthirteenth-century or nineteenth-century 
Christianity is, or even Buddhism, or Confucian- 
ism, or any other religion. The whole apologetic 
problem lies beyond the limits of the present dis- 
cussion. 

Yet it cannot be denied that the author has 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

everywhere assumed that the original gospel of 
Jesus furnishes ultimate religious reality. At 
first thought this might be regarded as a fault in 
a scientific treatment of the subject. But several 
considerations are available for the defense of the 
discussion as it stands. The first is that which 
has already been suggested, namely, that the 
assumption referred to in no way invalidates the 
real contention of the book — that the gospel of 
Jesus was obscured during its historical develop- 
ment, is being gradually recovered through an- 
other historical process, and should now be 
restated in the language of modern life. In the 
second place, the conviction of the finality of the 
gospel is a part of the gospel itself, and has been 
ever since the days of Jesus. Every discussion 
must have some starting-point. The book finds 
this in the gospel of Jesus, and does not attempt 
to go back of that. It has a right, therefore, to 
make the same assumption that is everywhere 
bound up in that gospel. Indeed, to eliminate 
that assumption is impossible without depoten- 
tiating the gospel, and to prove it is unnecessary, 
inasmuch as that is not the purpose in view. And 
finally, it is this very presupposition of the intrin- 
sic value of the gospel that makes the subject 
worth considering at all, and that gives it special 
interest at the present time. That which men 
regard as of no value may be obscured or com- 



xxvi INTRODUCTION 

pletely lost without causing solicitude. But the 
conviction of the gospel that it offers ultimate 
religious truth has been the cause of the whole 
historical process of Christianity in the world. 
This claim offers in itself adequate and most 
attractive material for an independent treatise, 
but the author has purposely passed it by and 
chosen the other subject, assuming throughout 
his own discussion the truth that would be the 
conclusion of the first — namely, that the uncor- 
rupted gospel of Jesus furnishes ultimate religious 
reality. 



PART I 
THE RECOVERY OF THE GOSPEL 



CHAPTER I. 

THE MODERN SPIRIT AND ITS SEARCH FOR 
REALITY. 

The modern religious movement was not 
inaugurated by a priori probabilities respecting 
the obscuration of the gospel. Such considera- 
tions never would have shaken the church from 
its dogmatic slumber. The movement is due to 
the modern spirit, the Zeitgeist of our age, with 
its new historical sense and intense love of real- 
ity. 

Nothing else is so characteristic of the mod- 
ern world as this spirit, which, because it has 
found its clearest expression in the realm of nat- 
ural science, we have come to call the scientific 
spirit. It is something new, due apparently to 
the emerging genius of the Germanic peoples, 
coming at last to maturity and awakening to 
activity after its long period of silent develop- 
ment. In the great Renaissance, that wonderful 
new birth of the fifteenth century, the world of 
thought was shaken as in the throes of a mighty 
travail, and brought forth this virile child. Thus 
in the twilight of the modern dawn a new spirit 
appeared which has been steadily extending its 

3 



4 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

influence, and embodying itself in a new civiliza- 
tion. 

The distinctive peculiarity of this spirit is its 
determination to get at the reality of things. For 
centuries men had been working over and com- 
bining into new forms the material of Greek and 
Roman thought. Instead of going to the world 
itself, and to current life, for the subject-matter of 
science and philosophy, they inquired what the an- 
cients thought about the world and about life. The 
astronomy of Ptolemy, the philosophy of Aris- 
totle, the theology of the church Fathers — these 
were the things that men were studying, rather 
than the realities back of them. But the new 
spirit awoke to the consciousness that it was liv- 
ing in a world of its own — a world of present 
existences. It therefore deserted the realm of 
words and opinions, traditions and theories, the 
far-away region beyond the stars, and has been 
giving its attention with irresistible energy to the 
actual world in which it finds itself, in the hope 
of ascertaining what this is and what it means. 

I. THE MODERN SPIRIT AND MODERN CULTURE. 

In this search for reality the new spirit first 
turned to the study of that which was nearest 
and most tangible — the world of nature. Here 
it worked out a new body of science, in harmony 
with the realities disclosed. The story is too 



OF THE GOSPEL 5 

familiar to require many words. One of the first 
and most significant discoveries was that in the 
heavens the center of the solar system is not the 
earth, but the sun, about which the earth and its 
sister-planets revolve. The whole ancient sys- 
tem of elaborate cycles and epicycles collapsed 
as the real heavens and earth appeared. Turning 
to the earth itself, the new temper entered a 
field especially congenial for its operations. The 
earth was found to be, not some vague and limit- 
less plain with its four corners resting upon mys- 
terious foundations, but a comparatively small 
globe of definite dimensions, which could be cir- 
cumnavigated and mapped out. This discovery 
was a deathblow to numberless bogies and super- 
stitions, and gave a great impetus to the growing 
determination to know the real world. As the 
work of exploration proceeded, new continents 
appeared, rising out of the mist and darkness 
that had hitherto enshrouded them. The oceans 
became the highway of life, and ships sailed to 
the remotest lands of earth in search of treasure 
and adventure and new homes for men. The 
new heavens and new earth thus discovered have 
become the subjects of the minutest and most 
painstaking investigation, as to their nature and 
the laws operating among their multitudinous 
elements. The result is the vast and intricate 
body of natural science which is perhaps the 



6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

most characteristic creation of the modern 
spirit. 

But while the new movement started with 
nature, and became assured of the soundness of 
its method in natural science, it did not stop 
here. It entered the realm of thought, and 
demanded there also a return to reality. It 
brought philosophy back from the realm of 
imaginative speculation and required of it 
the explanation, not of the hypothetical, but 
of the real; not the continuation and system- 
atization of the thinking of the past, but the 
interpretation of present existence. Descartes, 
doubting everything that could be doubted, and 
starting over again with present reality in his 
noted dictum, cogito, ergo sum, gave expression 
to the genius of the new spirit, at the very 
birth of modern philosophy. Beginning thus 
with the present reality and the conscious ego, 
there have come into existence a new philosophy 
and psychology which are required to remember 
that even here, in the most abstract of all realms, 
where the constant tendency is toward the unreal 
and visionary, the business in hand is the expla- 
nation of the real world and real life. 

In the field of art and literature, likewise, this 
love for reality manifests itself. After long 
copying of the ancient models, and continued 
use of subjects existing only in the imagination, 



OF THE GOSPEL 7 

modern art has returned to nature and to life for 
its most characteristic themes. Literature also 
manifests the same tendency toward realism. 
In writings of travel and description, we have, 
if not a new creation, at least a literature 
that is animated by an entirely different spirit 
from that of the ancients. The whole purpose 
and effort is to be faithful to what actually ex- 
ists. In fiction, which certainly is a modern cre- 
ation, there may seem to be an exception to this 
return to reality; for is not here displayed a 
peculiar delight in the "fictitious" and imagina- 
tive ? Yet fiction has as its object the portrayal 
of life in a way truer to inner reality than is pos- 
sible in any other form of literature. It is there- 
fore a true child of the modern spirit ; and the 
demand is strong today that it shall remain loyal 
to its mission by the faithful representation of 
life as it is. 

Another form of modern literature deserves 
special attention. The new Zeitgeist, while at 
first concerned chiefly about present reality, has 
been forced, in the effort to explain the present, 
to widen its scope and undertake the study of 
the past. This has given birth to a new sci- 
ence of history, very different in character from 
the ancient history-writing. Employing the same 
scientific method used in the study of nature and 
of present life, and animated by the same deter- 



8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

mination to get at the true state of things, the 
new study has done its utmost to reproduce the 
life of the past by an exhaustive scrutiny of the 
records that have survived. As little room as 
possible has been left for guesswork and for tra- 
ditional interpretations, while everything has 
been judged by comparison with the records at 
first hand. The result, without question, is a 
clearer perception of the historical continuity of 
life and a better understanding of present condi- 
tions. The seeds of the present were sown in 
the past : the fruit is better estimated because of 
our knowledge of the seed and the conditions of 
its growth. Important everywhere in the world 
of thought, this truth has special significance 
here because of its bearing upon the matter dis- 
cussed in the following pages. Present-day 
theological and institutional Christianity did not 
spring full-grown from the mind of God. The 
understanding of the past life of Christianity, 
gained by the new study of history, is of ines- 
timable value as a factor in the recovery of the 
gospel. This fact will become apparent as the 
discussion proceeds. 

After its search for reality in nature by means 
of the physical sciences ; in the realm of living 
beings through the biological sciences ; in the 
sphere of thought and action through psychol- 
ogy, philosophy, art, and literature ; and for the 



OF THE GOSPEL 9 

reality of the past through the sciences of 
archaeology and history — the modern spirit has 
now turned to the study of the corporate life of 
man with the same desire to know the real facts, 
and has given birth to sociology, the youngest 
of the sciences. The social relations of men, 
that have been left so long to the social instinct 
and to a limited religious sentiment, are now being 
investigated by the same scientific method else- 
where employed, and the facts and laws of com- 
munity life are coming to light. 

In the practical activities of the modern 
world, as well as in the search for truth, the 
nature of the new spirit reveals itself. Side by 
side with discovery has gone the utilization of 
the new knowledge for the enrichment of life. 
Geographical exploration has been followed by 
conquest and settlement, until nearly every hab- 
itable part of the earth is known and occupied. 
Discovery of the secrets of nature has been fol- 
lowed by the invention of mechanical contriv- 
ances for "harnessing the forces of nature" to 
do the world's work. Thus has been created a 
new world of affairs, in which the stage of activ- 
ity has vastly widened, a new commerce of 
gigantic dimensions and influence has been built 
up, and new means of transportation and com- 
munication have so bound the world together 
that isolated life has given place to the closest 



io RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

industrial, social, and national interrelation and 
interdependence. 

In all of these directions it is evident that a 
new force is at work in the modern world — a 
spirit that has no love for a priori speculations, 
that is impatient of words and suppositions and 
scholastic subtleties, that will take nothing upon 
the authority of the past, and that is not over- 
reverent of the traditions of the Fathers ; but 
rather, with unquenchable thirst and incessant 
zeal and severe scientific method, is giving itself 
to the task of discovering the realities of the 
universe and of life, influenced more or less in 
all of this by the expectation of using this new 
knowledge for the enrichment of human life. 

The activity of this spirit has changed the 
world's civilization. In its search for reality in 
the realms of nature and life during the last four 
hundred years the new energy has built up a 
culture distinctively its own. This civilization 
does not merely add to the old ; it supersedes it. 
It contains elements that often necessitate a total 
break with ancient culture, because they are ir- 
reconcilable with it. These instances have been 
hinted at already, and do not need to be given in 
detail. They include an entirely different theory 
of astronomy and of the relation of material 
bodies to one another, a different attitude toward 
the material universe, a different theory of 



OF THE GOSPEL n 

knowledge, a new conception of the value of 
life, a new interdependence between men and na- 
tions. In short, the entire world-view has changed. 
Much that was an integral part of ancient cul- 
ture has dropped out. It is not that this cul- 
ture has been argued away, nor that the pres- 
ent conditions have been adjusted to it, but 
that it has of necessity passed into oblivion as 
the new and independent culture has taken its 
place. The fundamental character of the change 
as a whole is well illustrated in the realm of 
astronomy. When once it had become estab- 
lished beyond reasonable doubt that the sun, 
and not the earth, is the center of our planetary 
system, and that the mutual relations of material 
bodies are regulated by the universal law of 
gravitation, then the whole body of ancient astro- 
nomical culture sank out of modern life, as a 
thing with which we had no more concern, ex- 
cept for archaeological purposes. The world 
started de novo in astronomical science, and there 
was no attempt to combine the new culture with 
the old, or to reconcile the two. There was an 
absolute break, a radical revolution in thought. 
What is true in the case of astronomy is true, in 
general, of the ancient civilization. The modern 
world started afresh, and has developed a culture 
of its own, in harmony with its new conceptions 
of reality. 



iz RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

II. THE MODERN SPIRIT AND CHRISTIANITY. 

This new culture is sometimes assigned as 
the cause of the modern religious movement. The 
changed aspect of the world's civilization is said 
to demand a new view of religion. And in a 
certain sense this is doubtless true. The modern 
culture has reacted upon traditional Christianity 
and helped the movement onward. The direct 
effect of the new culture, however, is manifest in 
the demand for the restatement of the gospel, 
rather than in efforts for its recovery. 

The real cause of the religious movement 
beginning with the advent of the modern era lies 
back of the new culture, in the spirit that created 
it. The same Zeitgeist that, seeking reality in 
other departments, has built up a new body of 
knowledge which has changed the character of 
the world's culture and the current of its thought, 
turned at length to the realm of religion in its 
ceaseless search for truth, and demanded reality 
there also. It was not to be expected that 
the new spirit would leave untouched that 
realm of thought to which the human mind 
continually returns as containing, after all, the 
deepest and most permanent reality of life. 
While it manifested its true genius in choosing 
the world of nature as its starting-point, yet 
when here it had developed its method and 
gained confidence by undeniable successes, it was 



OF THE GOSPEL 13 

inevitable that it should turn for yet greater 
conquests to the realm of religion. 

When this demand for reality began to make 
itself felt in the province of Christianity, it found 
there an elaborate ecclesiastical system and a 
traditional theology holding undisputed sway. 
The Roman Catholic church had perfected its 
organization, and by its priests and sacraments, 
its confessions, penances, and indulgences, now- 
stood between men and God, as mediator of sal- 
vation. This ecclesiastical institution was ac- 
companied and upheld by a congenial system of 
doctrine which, germinating in the same soil and 
developing under the same conditions, had almost 
entirely ceased to draw its material from the 
original Christian sources, and indeed, by its own 
findings, denied the necessity of doing so. While 
pretending to be the authorized explication of 
the gospel, it had become hopelessly entangled 
with metaphysical speculations and traditional 
problems, which both rendered it incapable of 
doing justice to gospel truth and at the same 
time removed it far away from the interests of 
men in the actual world of affairs. This, also, 
had come to stand between men and God by de- 
manding its own acceptance as a condition of 
salvation and of fellowship in the saving church. 

Here in the realm of religion, likewise, the 
scientific spirit, true to its practical genius, laid 



14 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

hold of that which was most tangible. It did 
not begin with the speculative dogmatics of the 
church, but attacked the ecclesiastical institu- 
tion which it found blocking the way to religious 
reality. 

This is the meaning of the Reformation of 
the sixteenth century. It was the modern real- 
ity-loving spirit grappling in a life-and-death 
struggle with the man-made traditional eccle- 
siastical system which had thrust itself in be- 
tween men and God. Martin Luther was the 
incarnation of this spirit in its religious activity. 
When it spoke forth from him, however, it was 
quickly answered from far and near, showing 
that in him it had not come to a premature 
birth. 

The Reformation succeeded in its task. It 
gave men immediate access to God without in- 
tervention of priest and pope, and made salva- 
tion consist primarily in right personal relations 
with God. It tore down the interloping media- 
torial fictions of priesthood and ecclesiasticism 
and set men free. It did more. By opening the 
Bible to the people, it brought Christianity back 
into touch with its original sources, and prepared 
the way for further progress. 

But, while the Lutheran Reformation accom- 
plished so much, still it was only a partial success, 
for the reason that it was essentially only a prac- 



OF THE GOSPEL 



15 



tical reformation ; although, parenthetically, the 
paradox may be ventured that this was the cause 
of the success that it did achieve. It contented 
itself with attacking the corrupt ecclesiastical 
organization and the false salvation that this 
offered, leaving generically untouched the elab- 
orate system of ecclesiastical dogmatics. For, 
although the Reformation led to important 
modifications of theology, these affected only 
the practical issues that had been fought out. 
Indeed, the modern spirit seemed to have ex- 
hausted its energies in the struggle with the 
church, and left traditional theology to tighten 
its grip and extend its sway. 

The result of the perpetuation of the old dog- 
matics was a new loss of religious reality. Prot- 
estantism discarded the Catholic church institu- 
tion and left to theology the undisputed field, 
giving it a place out of all proportion to its im- 
portance, and extending its jurisdiction into 
regions where it has no right to rule. And so it 
came about that, as in the former time God must 
be approached through priest and sacrament, so 
now he was to be apprehended through an 
elaborate theological system, upon the accept- 
ance of which salvation was made to depend. 
Words and theories and scholastic distinctions 
insinuated themselves between man and God as 
insistently as before. This was the condition of 



1 6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

things when the dormant modern spirit awoke 
again to life in the domain of religion, and began 
anew the search for truth. This time, as before, 
it attacked that which it found standing between 
itself and reality. But now, instead of the 
church institution, the obstacle was the mediaeval 
Catholic theology, worked over into the Protes- 
tant creeds. Hence the new Reformation, in the 
midst of which we are now living, partakes of a 
theological character. The theology of religion 
is asked to give way to religion itself. When it 
is finished, if successful, it will have completed 
the Lutheran Reformation by supplementing the 
practical reforms therein achieved with a theo- 
logical reconstruction that will assure the perma- 
nence of those results and give to Protestantism 
a theology that will do justice to its fundamental 
principles. 

In this new task the modern spirit, still true 
to its genius, did not begin with the speculative 
theology, where the difficulty really was, but laid 
hold of the tangible Christian literature as con- 
tained in the Bible and the existing records of 
the development of Christianity in history. It 
has undertaken the investigation of these records 
with enthusiastic eagerness, determined to know 
the facts concerning the origin of Christianity, 
the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and the 
history of the church since New Testament times. 



OF THE GOSPEL 17 

This has given to the movement a historical and 
exegetical character, and has led to the creation 
of a new science of biblical interpretation, utiliz- 
ing the principles of the inductive method, and 
a new science of church history, based upon 
the principles of modern historical research. 

The general result of the return to the Chris- 
tian sources has been, and is to be more and 
more, a cutting beneath the whole traditional 
theological development, or, perhaps better, a 
going back of it, to the New Testament gospel 
— a movement from traditional Christianity to 
New Testament Christianity in the search for 
religious reality. The new Reformation is thus 
an inherent necessity of the modern demand for 
reality in the realm of religion. 

If such reality is to be found, there is a wide- 
spread conviction that it will not be in the Ro- 
man Catholic ecclesiastical institution nor in the 
Protestant theological systems, but rather in 
immediate connection with that wonderful per- 
sonality that is back of church and creed alike 
— the historical Jesus of Nazareth whose life and 
teachings are recorded in the New Testament 
literature. We have turned from the church and 
the creed to the Christ. The belief is daily gain- 
ing strength that our hope of finding what we seek 
lies in a clearer understanding of him, a closer 
sympathy with him, and a more devoted loyalty to 



1 8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

him. Here, after much conflict and controversy 
not yet wholly ended, the modern spirit is com- 
ing more and more to rest in that religious reality 
which has so long been the goal of its earnest 
seeking. 1 

x It is here assumed that the unadulterated gospel of Jesus 
gives the final religious reality. To prove this lies beyond the 
scope of the present discussion. For a justification of the as- 
sumption see Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxvi. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE OBSCURATION OF THE GOSPEL IN THE 
COURSE OF ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

In the history of Christian thought there are 
three periods of special importance : First, the 
period of the early church, including the first 
three hundred years of its existence. This was fol- 
lowed by several centuries that continued the 
tendencies already started, and that are of interest 
chiefly because of the systems of a few great 
theologians. Second, the period of the Lutheran 
Reformation. Third, the post-Reformation pe- 
riod, leading up to, and including, the present 
religious movement. 

The first period, including the following devel- 
opment up to the Reformation, will be considered 
in the present chapter. The second and third 
periods will form the subject of the succeeding 
chapter. 

I. THE EARLY TRANSFORMATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Doctrinally, the period of the early church is 
the most important in its entire history. It was 
in every way the formative age of Christianity, 
and determined the course of the whole subse- 
quent development. Two things are of paramount 

19 



zo RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

significance : first, the organization of the eccle- 
siastical institution ; and, second, the contempo- 
rary and supplementary growth of the ecclesias- 
tical dogmatics. The first was due chiefly to 
Roman initiative, the second to Greek. In both 
there was a radical transformation of primitive 
Christianity. 

The departure from New Testament Christian- 
ity in the matter of church organization is now 
generally recognized, at least throughout the 
Protestant world. That was the point at issue 
in the Lutheran Reformation. The theological 
transformation, however, although it involved a 
still more fundamental change, was not discovered 
by the Reformation, and is not universally admit- 
ted even yet. But it has gradually been gaining 
recognition, and is without question the real issue 
in the new religious movement. 

It will be necessary to consider these two 
aspects of the subject at further length. 

The ecclesiastical tra?isformation. 

The development leading to the gradual or- 
ganization of the Catholic church into a com- 
pact and coherent ecclesiastical body is now 
established with a fair degree of historical cer- 
tainty. The church at first was no hard-and-fast 
institution. It was a free company naturally 
united, not by mechanical ties, but by the com- 
mon possession of the Holy Spirit, and by com- 



OF THE GOSPEL 21 

mon hopes and aims. All else was incidental to 
this fundamental character. In government it 
was simple and democratic. There was no 
marked distinction between clergy and laity. In 
each church those deemed best fitted to look 
after the affairs of the Christian community were 
chosen by their brethren to do so. Their duties 
were mostly confined to directing the financial 
affairs of the church, caring for the poor, and 
administering the ordinances, which as yet had 
no sacerdotal importance. The teaching and 
preaching were at first done chiefly by the apos- 
tles and by traveling evangelists and teachers. 
Well within New Testament times, however, the 
practice was instituted of selecting in each con- 
gregation men especially adapted to teach the 
Word, and appointing them to that task. Thus 
there arose a body of clergy more or less sepa- 
rated from the laity, yet with no sacerdotal line 
of distinction. The clergy were not priests, save 
only as all Christians are. 

Gradually, however, conditions operated to 
bring about a new state of things. 

In the first place, as the church came into 
contact with the sin of the world, and encoun- 
tered the consequent opposition and persecution, 
it became more clearly differentiated as a sepa- 
rate body. Then, as the early spiritual fervor 
and inspiration waned, the importance of the 



22 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

institution was magnified. The efficacy of the 
ordinances was emphasized in proportion to the 
diminution of spiritual power. Gradually salva- 
tion came to be regarded as possible only through 
the church and its ordinances ; and thus the 
church came to have an entirely new significance 
and value. 

In the next place, within the church itself a 
change was going on in the growth of a sacer- 
dotal clergy. As emphasis came to be placed 
upon the ordinances of the church, new impor- 
tance attached to their administration. The 
early, but not inviolable, custom according to 
which the clergy administered the ordinances 
developed into the theory that this function was 
their prerogative exclusively. As the ordinances 
acquired a wholly sacerdotal character, the 
clergy were transformed into a priesthood, with 
power to grant or deny salvation by admitting 
to, or excluding from, participation in the sav- 
ing sacraments. The gulf between the clergy 
and the laity had appeared. 

This movement was accelerated by the fur- 
ther fact that the clergy came to be regarded as 
the custodians of the truth. After the apostles 
had passed away, where was authority to be 
found? In the traditional apostolic teaching. 
But who was to decide what this was in its purity, 
and who was to declare its meaning authorita- 



OF THE GOSPEL 23 

tively? Heresies arose, and varying versions of 
the teaching, and manifold interpretations. The 
church was in danger of disintegration, and the 
need of authoritative teaching was sorely felt. 
Under such circumstances the clergy gradually 
arrogated to themselves, or were accorded, the 
right of interpreting the apostolic faith. They 
thus became guardians of the saving truth, and 
the gulf between them and the laity became yet 
wider. 

Still another factor entered into the change, in 
connection with the practical administration of af- 
fairs. Just as heresies appeared for lack of authori- 
tative interpretation of truth, so irregularities, 
disorders, and schisms arose in the independent 
churches for lack of authoritative government. 
Democratic liberty degenerated into schismatic 
license. From the other side, there was a 
natural movement on the part of the clergy. 
The most capable and influential men in the 
church community had been chosen as elders to 
direct the interests of the body. As disorder and 
schism appeared, these men, by virtue both of 
office and of influence, naturally gained special 
prominence and importance in the effort to pre- 
serve harmony. Thus the administration of affairs 
gradually fell more and more into their hands. 
Later, when the unity, not of individual churches, 
but of Christendom, was under consideration, it 



24 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

was from the ranks of the clergy that represent- 
atives went up to the oecumenical councils and 
there legislated for the universal church, respect- 
ing both the orthodox doctrine and the required 
conduct. 

In the changes above considered appear in 
germ the distinctive features of the early Catho- 
lic, and its successor, the Roman Catholic, 
church. There is a sacerdotal ecclesiastical 
institution which by its teaching and ordinances 
mediates salvation ; while within the church itself 
the clergy have acquired the exclusive right to 
administer the saving ordinances, interpret the 
saving truth, and exercise the functions of gov- 
ernment. There is a fixed gulf between the laity, 
who now are the supplicating recipients of the 
gracious favors of salvation, and the clergy, who 
have become a priesthood, with power to admit 
to, or exclude from, participation in the divine 
blessings. In principle the transformation of the 
apostolic church into the Catholic church is 
complete. 

The keynote of the succeeding development 
was the contest for precedence among the clergy 
themselves. The terms " presbyter " or " elder," 
and " bishop" or "overseer," were probably used 
interchangeably at first,to denote the men selected 
to direct the affairs of the religious community. 
But it would seem that soon the term "bishop" 



OF THE GOSPEL 25 

came to be applied exclusively to the president 
or chairman of the presbyters ; he still being 
elected from their number, and being one of them, 
with no different rank or functions except such as 
naturally pertained to his chairmanship. By 
degrees, however, in the midst of the contro- 
versies and changes of the early years of Chris- 
tianity, the influence of the bishops increased, 
until they became a separate and higher rank of 
clergy, claiming to be the direct successors of 
the apostles, and, therefore, the sole custodians 
of the apostolic tradition, and the possessors of 
apostolic authority. The contest for precedence 
then became limited to the bishops of the "apos- 
tolic sees." The metropolitan bishop first ac- 
quired jurisdiction over the neighboring country 
bishops, then the bishops of the apostolic sees 
gained jurisdiction throughout their respective 
regions. The controversy resulted in the pre- 
cedence of the bishop of Rome in the West, and 
in the establishment of the coherent Roman 
Catholic hierarchical organization, with the pope 
at its head and Rome as the center of influence. 
In this later development among the clergy, 
however, nothing was added in principle to the 
condition of things noted above. This con- 
flict accompanied the others from the first and 
helped them on, and then continued the develop- 
ment. In fact, the whole movement was one, 



26 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

working itself out along these various lines 
toward a unified and compactly organized church. 

This process was by no means simple, nor 
always clear. Many and complex factors were 
at work. The conditions were peculiar and called 
urgently for authority and unity ; the Roman 
genius for organization found a fitting field for 
operation; and it must also be admitted that 
human nature played no unimportant part. It is 
not necessary here to enter into an analysis of 
these factors, nor to trace their intertwinings. 
Neither is it incumbent to maintain or deny the 
historical necessity of the movement. It is 
sufficient that we recognize its occurrence and 
the condition of things resulting. In its main 
outlines, few scholars now question this historical 
rise and development of the Catholic church in 
post-apostolic times. 

This transformation of the New Testament 
church was not accomplished without a struggle. 
Montanism was a widespread and vigorous pro- 
test against the despiritualization of the church 
and the curtailment of its freedom by the substi- 
tution of a highly organized and firmly fixed 
ecclesiastical authority for its early democratic 
liberty. Although Montanism was suppressed, 
yet the protest was continued by individuals and 
isolated sects from that day until the great 
Reformation. 



OF THE GOSPEL 27 

The theological transformation. 

Parallel with the development of this ecclesi- 
astical institution there was formed a kindred 
ecclesiastical system of dogma co-ordinate with 
it, involving it and involved in it. They grew 
up side by side in the soil of the same civiliza- 
tion ; they naturally rest upon each other, and 
eventually they must stand or fall together. 

This is more apparent, and perhaps also more 
strictly true, concerning the distinctively Roman 
theology of the church. It was this especially 
that took form in immediate connection with the 
ecclesiastical development above described. In- 
deed, the theology was the theoretical justifica- 
tion of that which the historical movement was 
working out in institutional form. Not that it 
was always consciously apologetic, nor that it 
always followed after the other. The theolo- 
gians were in earnest in their convictions, and 
often the theory led the practical movement 
instead of resulting from it. Theory and his- 
torical process were organically connected. 

The teaching here involved was the practi- 
cal, as distinguished from the speculative, theol- 
ogy of the church. It had to do with the 
church institution and with salvation ; and there- 
fore affected the theology relating to the divine 
authority of the church, the organization and 
prerogatives of the priesthood, the character of 



28 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

the sacraments, and the position and duties of 
the laity. This does not exhaust the Roman 
influence upon theology, but it includes the most 
significant things due to Roman initiative. The 
further influence of Rome can be considered bet- 
ter later on. 

The main stream of theological development, 
properly so called, takes its rise, not among 
Roman surroundings, but from the Grecian civili- 
zation. Christian theology is the continuation of 
Greek philosophy, both in its fundamental char- 
acteristic, in its method and terminology, and in 
the subjects with which it concerns itself. 

The fundamental characteristic of Greek phi- 
losophy was its emphasis of knowledge. To know 
was the only thing worth while. A more certain 
and more clearly articulated system of truth 
was what distinguished the Greek philosopher 
from the ordinary man. It was in this that 
he placed his hope, inasmuch as the posses- 
sion of the true knowledge was itself salvation. 
When the educated Greek, with this mental 
temper, was attracted to Christianity he saw in it 
a new knowledge ; and he accepted it because he 
regarded it as the perfect philosophy, more surely 
true than any other, since it was based on divine 
revelation. In the early days of Greek influence 
Christianity therefore came to be regarded as a 
revealed body of knowledge. This was the posi- 



OF THE GOSPEL 29 

tion of the early Christian apologists, who were 
in reality philosophers defending Christianity as 
the perfect wisdom ; and of the early theolo- 
gians, who were philosophers systematizing this 
new body of truth. Thus the Greek emphasis of 
knowledge as the thing of first importance was 
transferred to Christianity almost at the begin- 
ning of its history. 

But the Greek philosopher not only turned to 
the investigation and systematization of this 
new material with the same underlying presup- 
positions which he had before ; he also carried 
over with him into Christianity the terminology 
and the dialectical method which had been devel- 
oped in Greek philosophy. Here in the philo- 
sophical realm the meanings of words had 
become fixed, some of them after a long and 
complex course of development. When Chris- 
tianity began to be thought out, and stated in 
terms of thought — that is, when Christian the- 
ology began to form — it naturally and necessa- 
rily expressed itself in the existing terminology. 
That meant that the old meaning of words at- 
tached to the new truth which they were used to 
express. Doubtless this meaning was in many 
cases more or less modified to meet the needs of 
the new truth, but the words never forgot their 
nativity ; the old coloring remained, and greatly 
influenced the early theology. The same thing 



30 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

is true of the philosophical dialectics. It en- 
tered into the discussion of Christian truth with- 
out essential change, continuing in theology the 
spirit and method of Greek philosophy. Thus, 
both by its terminology and by its forms of rea- 
soning, philosophy had formed the mold into 
which the unorganized Christian material was 
poured. It was not strange, it was inevitable, 
that theology should take the form of this highly 
perfected receptacle of thought. 

Here, then, was the Greek philosophical mind, 
with its firmly fixed conviction of the primary 
importance of knowledge as the way of salva- 
tion, with its dialectical method, and with its 
established terminology, giving itself to the 
Christian tradition regarded as a new divine phi- 
losophy made certain by revelation. It is not 
denied, and does not need to be denied, that the 
men who did this were bound to the new religion 
by personal evangelical faith as well. Indeed, 
they could not have done justice to Christianity 
as a philosophy if they had not been moved by 
it as a religion. The epoch-making significance 
of the thing lay just in this, that it was an 
attempt to express this religion, both as objec- 
tive fact and subjective experience, in the terms 
of philosophy, and by its method. The attempt 
was natural and necessary. Given the mind 
trained, as was the Greek, to habits of reasoning 



OF THE GOSPEL 31 

and philosophical expression, and bring into con- 
tact with it new material for thought, and it was 
inevitable that the effort should be made to ad- 
just this new material to the existing knowledge. 
The conditions presented a new problem for 
philosophical solution. 

The inherent necessity of this attempt was 
aided by outside causes which furnished the im- 
mediate occasion of the movement. The gospel 
was all-inclusive in offering its blessings: ''who- 
soever " would, might receive. The church, there- 
fore, soon included men of all kinds of mental 
tendency, all stages of intellectual development, 
and all shades of belief, united only in the com- 
mon faith and the tradition upon which it rested. 
What was to be the criterion of the true Chris- 
tian teaching ? While it was imperative that the 
reflecting Greek mind should try to make some 
kind of adjustment between the Christian faith 
and existing culture, yet at first it was strongly 
felt that Christianity was a faith and not a philos- 
ophy. How far, then, could a man go in his 
philosophizing and still remain a Christian? 
The New Testament canon had not yet been 
formed to serve as an authoritative standard of 
belief, and the allegorical interpretation of the 
Old Testament made it susceptible of any de- 
sired meaning. 

In these circumstances, the same causes that 



32 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

led to the ecclesiastical development which 
placed the authoritative interpretation of Chris- 
tian truth in the keeping of the bishops led 
to the kindred theological development which 
established the "orthodox" statement of that 
truth. The first known expression of this kind 
that gained any general currency was the so- 
called " Apostles' Creed," of which the oldest 
form is the Roman Symbol, in use in the church 
at Rome before the middle of the second cen- 
tury. At first this was not at all a creed in the 
later sense of that term. It was probably merely 
an expansion of the Baptismal Confession — a 
statement of some of the great Christian facts, 
used as a confession of faith by the candidate 
for baptism. 

Then came the determinative conflict with 
Gnosticism. Gnosticism was the first systematic 
attempt to reduce Christianity to a philosophy, 
dominated by the Greek conception of the para- 
mount importance of knowledge. This effort, 
as we have seen, was not born in a night ; the phil- 
osophic mind had already touched the problem 
here and there. But in Gnosticism the movement 
attained consciousness, and became a definite 
struggle. There was a deliberate attempt to 
transform the pistis into a gnosis. 

Just as Montanism was a protest against the 
growing Catholic church as inconsistent with the 



OF THE GOSPEL 33 

genius of the gospel, so there now ensued also a 
bitter struggle against Gnosticism, caused by the 
conviction that the gospel was not a system of 
knowledge by the acceptance of which salvation 
is secured. The enemies of Gnosticism literally 
stood ior the faith that was once for all delivered 
unto the saints. But alas! they that take the 
sword shall perish with the sword. Instead of 
fighting for the faith with the weapons of faith, 
its friends undertook its defense with the weap- 
ons of Gnosticism. They formulated a body 
of knowledge supposed to be in accordance with 
the rule of faith, and therefore "orthodox," and 
set this up over against the heretical system 
taught by the Gnostics, and overcame it. But 
in so doing, the very thing was accomplished 
in principle that Gnosticism was contending for : 
the idea became firmly rooted that Christianity 
is a system of knowledge which must be sub- 
scribed to by its adherents. The Rule of Faith, 
"lexftdei" explained and expanded, was transformed 
from a confession that expresses existing faith into a 
creed that conditions the existence of faith. An 
entirely new place was thus given to knowledge. 
In the contest with heretical Gnosticism an 
orthodox Gnosticism had gained a permanent 
place in the church. The conquered was con- 
queror : in orthodox Christianity the pistis had 
become a gnosis ; and the first irrevocable step 



34 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

was taken toward the identification of the gos- 
pel, the life of faith in God, with theology, the 
rational explication of that faith. 

The principle of Gnosticism, after gaining a 
foothold in the church, was firmly established 
there by the succeeding development. The 
apologists defended Christianity as the new and 
improved philosophy, the truth of which was at- 
tested by divine revelation, and the superiority 
of which was manifest by a comparison with 
heathen philosophies. Here are discovered the 
beginnings of orthodox Christian dogmatics. 
Irenseus and Tertullian, with their contemporaries, 
took the philosophical conception for granted in 
their polemical warfare with heresies. This is 
true in spite of Tertullian's invectives against phi- 
losophy. No one of the early writers did more 
than he to emphasize in theology the Greek con- 
ception of the importance of right knowledge. 
His influence in this direction was so great that 
he may properly be regarded as the father of or- 
thodoxy in the western church. 

But that which underlay the work of apolo- 
gists and polemicists came to clearest conscious- 
ness in the Alexandrian school, especially in 
Origen. These men undertook directly and sys- 
tematically the task of reducing Christianity to a 
philosophy. In Origen is found in successful 
completion that which the Gnostics vainly at- 



OF THE GOSPEL 35 

tempted. It is not the same system, to be sure ; 
but that is a matter of minor importance. Chris- 
tianity has become thoroughly transformed into 
a theological system which is genericallv the con- 
tinuation of Greek philosophy, both in its funda- 
mental conception of the primary importance of 
knowledge, in its method, in its terminology, and 
in its speculative spirit. Just as in the ecclesi- 
astical development the Christian faith, which 
was at the first a confident and loval trust in Jesus 
Christ, was displaced by faith in the church and 
its ordinances, so here in the theological develop- 
ment there occurs another displacement, and one 
even more radical : this Christian faith, or reli- 
gious trust in Christ, has been transformed into 
an act of intellectual assent to a body of philo- 
sophical knowledge, disguised as Christian theol- 
ogv, upon the acceptance of which salvation 
depends. 1 

x If anything more than this bare outline were attempted here 
it would be difficult to know where to stop, the material is so 
abundant and complex. For details the histories of the movement 
must be consulted, and fortunately these now approximate agree- 
ment with reference to the facts. Two things, however, ought to 
be noticed, in addition to what is said in the text. In the first 
place, the point of attachment for the Greek speculation was the 
doctrine of the Logos, which gradually established itself in the 
creed of the church during the third century. On this point 
Harnack says : "The formula of the Logos, as it was almost uni- 
versally understood, legitimized speculation, that is, Xeopla- 
tonic philosophy, within the creed of the church. When Christ 



36 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

II. FROM ORIGEN TO THE REFORMATION. 

The intervening period up to the Lutheran 
Reformation does not require detailed considera- 
tion in this discussion. It only developed the 
theological germ that had already been success- 
fully planted in the church by Origen. During 
the first part of the period, through the oecumeni- 
cal councils, the results of philosophical specula- 
tion in theology were crystallized into the dogmas 
of the Trinity and the Person of Christ, which have 
always constituted dogma par excellence. At the 

was designated the incarnate Logos of God this implied a defi- 
nite philosophical view of God, of creation, and of the world ; 
and the baptismal confession became a compendium of scientific 
dogmatics, that is, of a system of doctrine entwined with the 
metaphysics of Plato and the Stoics." Christ was first identified 
with the Logos, and the Logos was then introduced into the inner 
circle of God's being. This was the line of development along 
which dogma gained a recognized place in the church. 

The second point concerns the completion of the movement 
which resulted in the triumph of the dogmatic conception 
of Christianity. In the text this is represented as taking place 
in Origen. While that is true in a general way, yet it is not 
strictly accurate. Origen still recognized that his theology was 
something different from the traditional apostolic faith. He 
maintained only that it was the scientific exposition of that faith, 
for the benefit of philosophers and men of culture. The simple 
faith itself, as expressed in the apostolic Regula Fidei was 
enough for the great mass of ordinary Christians, and was all 
that they were capable of understanding. But the educated man 
could not be satisfied until he understood the real meaning of this 
faith, which consisted in the system of knowledge elaborated by 
Origen. In this perfect gnosis was the eternal and abiding truth 
of Christianity. It was in the Logos-christological controversies 



OF THE GOSPEL 37 

Lateran council of 121 5 the church added to these 
ancient dogmas those of the eucharist, baptism, 
and penance. These five articles formed exclusive 
dogma of the first order up to the council of Trent. 
Around dogma proper a fine-spun and complex 
theology was built up during the Middle Ages that 
practically buried it, while the energy of west- 
ern Christendom was turned toward the establish- 
ment of the elaborate ecclesiastical organization 
and cultus of the Roman Catholic church. From 
the time of Augustine the period is notable, theo- 

of the seventy-five years following Origen that the philosophical 
speculations characterizing his theology really came to be intro- 
duced into the Regula Fidei as an integral part. One of the 
first instances is found in the letter of the eastern bishops to Paul 
of Samosata in opposition to his Christology. They say that they 
desire to set forth " the faith which we received from the begin- 
ning, and possess, having been transmitted and kept in the 
Catholic church, proclaimed up to our day by the successors of 
the blessed apostles, who were both eyewitnesses and assistants 
of the Logos." But what they proceed to define as " the faith " is 
nothing other than the speculative philosophy. In addition to 
this, by the end of the third century even baptismal confessions 
containing the doctrine of the Logos began to appear in the 
East. Thus gradually in this section of the church, during the 
years from Origen to the council of Nicaea, the philosophical dog- 
matics of Origen, or equally philosophical modifications of his 
system, became inextricably fused with the " apostolic faith," and 
the triumph of theology over faith was complete. Owing to the 
less speculative temper of the West, and its interest in other 
phases of Christianity, this fusion of dogma and faith was not 
completed there until a much later date, and then largely under 
the influence of the Greek spirit, exerted through the oecumenical 
councils and the controversies growing out of them. 



38 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

logically, for the systems of a few great thinkers, 
rather than for general intellectual activity. The 
church at large lived in ignorance, superstition, 
and worldliness, while the more earnest spirits 
sought to escape from the world's temptations 
by fleeing to the isolation of the monasteries. In 
the East theology continued to be of vital impor- 
tance for a much longer time than in the West; 
yet even here it was gradually supplanted by the 
cultus. But, while old doctrines were turned into 
dogmas, and other doctrines came to the front, 
in neither East nor West was there anything 
generically new in theology during this entire 
period. 

In the theological activity of this period, as 
well as in the ecclesiastical, the molding influence 
of the Roman mind was decisive. Attention has 
already been called to the fact that Roman initia- 
tive in theology was confined to the practical doc- 
trines of the church. It was during the period 
now before us that the further influence of Rome 
there referred to appeared. The principle of ex- 
pressing the gospel in a theology that should 
embody the perfect knowledge was due to Greek 
influence, as we have seen, as were also the first 
essays in this direction. The matter was then 
taken up by the Romans and worked out accord- 
ing to their legal genius. That is, orthodox 
dogmatics is due, generically, to Greek influence ; 



OF THE GOSPEL 39 

specifically, the dogmas were all of them nurtured, 
and some of them born, in Rome. The theo- 
logical stream, having taken its rise in Greek soil, 
flowed now through Roman territory, and drew 
up into itself Roman elements. This accounts 
for the fact that the doctrines which are cur- 
rent in western Christendom are so universally 
colored by the Roman juridical ideas. It accounts 
also for the dominating influence of Paul in the- 
ology, his terminology being especially suscep- 
tible of legal manipulation. It accounts still 
further for the unsatisfactory form, philosophi- 
cally considered, of many doctrines formulated 
under Roman influence; for the Romans had no 
independent speculative genius. 

The influence of the Roman Tertullian in the 
former age had already been far-reaching. In 
the period now before us Augustine is the great 
name — the lineal theological descendant of Ter- 
tullian. Augustine carried the development for- 
ward, and exerted an incalculable influence in 
forming orthodox theology and in directing its 
subsequent course. He is of special interest for 
our discussion, because in his system there comes 
to light, although he was apparently unconscious 
of the fact, the inherent contradiction into which 
Christianity had run. On the one hand, he made 
salvation depend upon membership in the earthly 
church organization, with participation in its or- 



40 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

dinances and the acceptance of its creed ; while, 
on the other hand, he maintained that salvation 
depends solely upon the free sovereign grace and 
election of God, conditioned only by faith in 
Christ. 

But while this period contains much of inter- 
est for a detailed history of the church and of 
doctrine, yet with these remarks we may pass it 
here ; for there was no change in underlying the- 
ological principle from Origen to Luther, if, in- 
deed, we are to find it even then. 

III. THE OBSCURATION OF THE GOSPEL RESULTING 
FROM THE EARLY TRANSFORMATION OF CHRIS- 
TIANITY. 

The discussion hitherto in this chapter has 
been occupied with the transformation of Chris- 
tianity that took place during the early history 
of the church. It is now necessary to observe 
more particularly the nature of this change and 
see how it caused an eclipse of the original gos- 
pel of Jesus. 

The radical character of the change. 

The obscuration of the gospel resulting from 
the success of the ecclesiastical movement as 
distinguished from the theological is apparent to 
every candid student of history. The secret of 
it may be expressed in a sentence : The early 
ecclesiastical transformation of Christianity in- 
volved the substitution of the church for the 



OF THE GOSPEL 41 

Christ as the object of faith, and hence as the 
means of salvation ; or, to say the least, Christ 
could be found only through the church, which 
therefore conditioned salvation. 

There can be no question, as will be shown in 
chap, iv, that Christ and the apostles made 
salvation a vital, not a mechanical, matter. It 
did not depend upon ordinances, however much 
it might express itself in them or encourage 
itself by them. It depended solely upon a faith 
which brought man into such a relation of con- 
fident reliance upon God and willingness to do 
his will that God could teach him how to live and 
give him the power to realize the new life in 
actual character and deeds. The early transfor- 
mation of the church, with the new theories 
invblved, obscured this New Testament idea of 
salvation. The process of change may be traced 
more or less clearly, as indicated above, and cer- 
tainly the resulting condition of things is all too 
plain. Salvation came to depend, not upon union 
with Christ, but upon union with the church. Not 
figuratively, but actually, were sins washed away 
by the baptismal waters ; and the perpetuation of 
God's gracious favors could be secured only by 
continued participation in the Lord's Supper, 
which now had become a sacrament. These 
were both administered by the church through 
its priests. Hence salvation was impossible out- 



42 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

side the church. Ceremonialism replaced, or at 
least conditioned, salvation as a living process. 
Ceasing to be obtained by a vital process, salva- 
tion ceased to be a vital matter ; or, at best, liv- 
ing was regulated by what the church said, rather 
than by what Christ commanded. 

In connection with this ecclesiastical obscura- 
tion, account must also be taken of the seculari- 
zation of the worship of the church by the 
introduction of rites and ceremonies from the 
neighboring heathen cults. As to just how great 
this influence was there is difference of opinion, 
but without doubt it was considerable. The 
form of administering the ordinances, the char- 
acter of church architecture, the observance 
of days and seasons, the worship of saints and 
images — these and many other things were in- 
fluenced by the heathen environment, which cast 
its ceremonial and superstitious shadows over 
the simplicity of the primitive Christian wor- 
ship. 

But, while the eclipse of the gospel due to 
Roman influence was disastrous, that due to 
the Greek influence during the formative period 
of the church was still deeper and darker — was, 
indeed, the most radical metamorphosis of Chris- 
tianity that has ever taken place. 

In the first place, and of chief importance, 
the transfer of base from faith to knowledge 



OF THE GOSPEL 43 

caused a fundamental obscuration of the gospel 
by radically changing its nature and the field of 
its operation. Not that the theological expression 
of the gospel in a philosophical form congenial 
with contemporary culture constitutes in itself 
an evil. On the contrary, this is necessary to 
its proper comprehension in any age, and to 
its most effective influence. Christianity has 
intellectual aspects and relations that need 
systematic expression. The obscuration results 
only when the gospel forgets its real nature, 
and not only expresses itself in philosophical 
form, but so identifies itself with this expression 
as to lose its original character as a religion of 
faith. Nor does this identification need to be 
absolute in order to constitute an eclipse. That 
result will be produced if the change from faith 
to knowledge is pronounced enough to affect per- 
manently the distinctive principle of Christianity 
and upset the old balance of truth by the substi- 
tution of a new governing idea. 

This is exactly what was accomplished in the 
early historical development that culminated in 
the theology of Origen. Christianity there not 
only produced a theology, but went farther, and 
became identified with this to such an ex- 
tent that it was transferred from the religious 
realm, where Christ established it, to the intel- 
lectual realm of philosophy. Now philosophy 



44 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

deals only with ideas, in their thought-relations. 
This is not its fault, but its high calling and last- 
ing glory. Its proper task is to interpret the 
world to thought, by means of ideas and con- 
cepts. But for that very reason philosophy can- 
not take the place of religion. The thought is 
not the thing; the idea of God is not God him- 
self. Both philosophy and religion have God as 
their final goal. But in philosophy God is at the 
last still only an idea ; in religion he is the final 
personal reality. In philosophy we are related 
to him in thinking ; in religion we are related to 
him by the whole moral and religious nature as 
well. Philosophy is thus only a segment of 
religion, the intellectual segment. Religion 
includes this, and, in addition, the great realms 
of moral judgment, feeling, and willing. In- 
deed, if Christianity is to be confined to any 
one realm, it belongs, in Christ's thought, 
far more truly to one of these last than to 
that of ideas. Therefore to identify Chris- 
tianity with philosophy, or even to turn it de- 
terminatively in that direction, as was done in 
the early historical process, was radically to 
change its nature and obscure its characteristic 
quality by deflecting it into the channel to which 
it least properly belongs. Intellectual assent 
to a body of philosophical knowledge does not 



OF THE GOSPEL 45 

meet at all Christ's requirements of faith, even 
though this philosophy has to do with divine 
things. 

This transformation constitutes the original 
and fundamental Christian heresy ; none the less 
a heresy because it has arrogated to itself exclu- 
sive right to the term "orthodoxy," and can still 
maintain that title for the reason that it is in pos- 
session of the standards by which it judges 
truth, standards which it has itself set up and 
declared to be authoritative. It is a heresy that 
has never been eradicated. While practically it 
has been overridden in every time of religious 
revival, when the original power of the gospel 
has asserted itself in spite of obstacles, yet theo- 
retically it has remained unchanged from that day 
to this, and has dethroned Christianity from its 
rightful dominion over the entire range of human 
life. The reason why it has not proved even 
more disastrous is the fact of the divine persist- 
ence of the faith itself. However it might be with 
individuals, assent to the creed was never com- 
pletely divorced, in the church as a whole, from 
living faith in Jesus. The gospel survived in 
spite of its theological obscuration; and even in 
the darkest ages, when the teaching that men 
could be saved only by entering the organized 
church and subscribing to its authorized creed 



46 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

cast its withering blight upon religion and moral- 
ity, still true religion was conserved and society 
preserved by the existence of sincere and pious 
saints and sages that had felt the inspiration of 
direct contact with the divine Lord. 

Another result of the success of this process 
leading to the establishment of Origen's theol- 
ogy was not immediately apparent, and could not 
be until the thinking of the world should change. 
This very success also, on the other hand, helped 
to keep thought from changing, for it caused the 
perpetuation of the particular philosophy then 
dominant. It was not philosophy in general, or in 
the abstract, with which Christianity became iden- 
tified, but the specific philosophy that up to that 
time had been developed, and was then current. 
Christianity thus took up into itself as a constitu- 
ent element the philosophical and scientific ideas 
of the Alexandrian period, colored by the world- 
view and the intellectual atmosphere of that age. 
Did that make the culture of that age divine, 
along with the religion which had appropriated it ? 
Or would the old world-view pass away, would the 
thinking of men change, and would this culture 
some day become so obsolete as to bring the gos- 
pel itself into disrepute, and thus rob men living 
in a new civilization of the blessings of Christian- 
ity ? We shall see. 



OF THE GOSPEL 47 

The eclipse of the personal element in the gospel. 

Looking at the early historical movement as 
a whole, and from a somewhat different angle 
of vision, its effect is still more clearly discern- 
ible. It involved the elimination, or at least the 
radical obscuring, of that which is most charac- 
teristic of religion in general, and of the Chris- 
tian religion in particular — namely, the personal 
element. 

This is apparent from what has already been 
said concerning the process of transformation, 
but may well be brought out definitely here. 

1. Salvation was at first a new life of faith 
in Christ, involving a personal trust which so 
united the believer with him that the Master's 
power to conquer sin became the disciple's also. 
There came a double change. On the one hand, 
under the influence of the Greek spirit and phi- 
losophy, there was a change in the nature of faith, 
from personal trust and allegiance to intellectual 
assent ; the act of the whole moral and religious 
nature became an act of the intellect alone. On 
the other hand, this involved a change in the ob- 
ject of faith, the intellect turning from Christ to 
what he said, and to what others said that he 
said, and then to what ought to be thought con- 
cerning the kind of person he was. That is, 
the object of faith ceased to be Christ and became 
the creed — the body of knowledge that deals 



48 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

with Christ and his teaching. The object of faith 
was still further affected by the Roman influence, 
which made the thing requiring acceptance not so 
much the creed as the church and its ordinances. 
Here the church was substituted for Christ as the 
creed had been by the Greeks. There was thus a 
double depersonalization of the religion : faith 
largely ceased to be personal in its nature, due to 
its conversion from a religious into an intellectual 
act ; and in the object toward which it is directed, 
due to the displacement of the personal Christ by 
the impersonal creed and the impersonal church. 

This characterization is not to be taken as ab- 
solute. As a matter of fact, there never was a 
time when faith in Christ did not involve belief 
in what he said, as well as trust in him ; while, on 
the other hand, the time never came when the in- 
tellectual acceptance of the creed and the church 
was totally divorced from all connection with the 
personal Lord, who, whether rightly or wrongly, 
was regarded as the author of the existing dog- 
matics and church institution. Yet the change 
was decisive enough to affect radically and per- 
manently the distinctive character of Christianity, 
and deprive it of the wealth of personal relation- 
ships which it had in the thought and life of its 
founder. 

2. Again, at the first the church was under 
the free leadership of the Holy Spirit. It was a 



OF THE GOSPEL 49 

united company of Spirit-filled men and women. 
So led, they elected their officers and carried on 
their work. They agreed together because, and 
in so far as, they all possessed the common spirit. 
Nothing is plainer in the New Testament church 
than this. But this consciousness of spiritual in- 
spiration gradually waned under long-continued 
contact with the world, the unexpected delay of 
the return of the Lord, the encroaching preten- 
sions of the clergy, and other influences sur- 
rounding the early church. Then other author- 
ity and leadership seemed necessary to take the 
Spirit's place — something tangible and able to 
enforce its claims with visible power. Moreover, 
abuses and extravagances were common under 
the old free spiritual regime, and the leaders of 
the church more and more desired to have things 
reduced to decency and order. So the old domi- 
nance of the Spirit was gradually supplanted by 
the authority of tradition, and by the " proprie- 
ties," and later by the written word of the New 
Testament — which was formed into a canon 
partly to meet this very need, — and still later by 
the creed and the church, all of these, in turn, 
involving the growing influence of the church 
leaders. 

Thus the Christian communities were brought 
into subjection to impersonal authority, and the 
unity of the Spirit was superseded by uniformity 



50 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

of belief and of worship. No one will question 
that the old order, even with all of its abuses, was 
richer in life and power. It was this very spiritual 
exuberance that did more than anything else to 
give to Christianity its triumphs in the early cen- 
turies. Impersonal authority was substituted at 
the expense of vital force. Inspiration died as 
theology and priest acquired dominion. 

Perhaps this external authority was necessary 
during the long tutelage of the new races with 
which Christianity came into contact. Be that 
as it may, it involved a decided depersonalization 
of the gospel, which, if it continued permanent 
after its temporary purpose should have been 
served, would remain as an element of misunder- 
standing and inefficiency. The time of tutelage 
and bondage to law must again pass away and 
let the original spiritual leadership return in 
fuller and more intelligently accepted power. 

The elimination of the personal element 
from Christianity may be further illustrated by 
examples taken from the growth of special doc- 
trines. 

I. The substitution of a philosophical "God" 
for the personal " Father" of Jesus. Jesus' habit- 
ual and characteristic mode of designating God 
was by the term " Father." In the four gospels, 
not counting duplicates in parallel passages, he is 



OF THE GOSPEL 51 

reported as using that term one hundred and fifty- 
eight times. He uses it almost exclusively in 
praver and in reference to God's forgiveness and 
providence. The term " God M he emplovs only one 
hundred and thirty-three times, and nearly always 
in formal and technical wavs — one-third of the 
instances being in such customary phrases as 
•'kingdom of God," " Son of God." and "word of 
God." He never uses it in speaking of forgive- 
ness, nor employs it in prayer ; unless one con- 
siders as prayer his bitter exclamation on the 
cross, when for one dark moment he loses the 
consciousness of his Father's presence. But 
even then he immediately recovers himself, and 
says : " Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." 
Jesus' Father was his dearest personal friend, his 
constant counselor and inspiration. His thought 
of God and his filial relation to God are unique 
and constituent elements in his personaiitv and 
in the religion that he founded. 

But even within New Testament times Christ's 
thought of God began to be obscured. It was 
impossible for his disciples to have the intimate 
consciousness of God as Father that Jesus pos- 
sessed. So it need not surprise us to mark a 
change in Paul's usage. In the thirteen epistles 
ascribed to him he employs the term " Father" 
onlv fortv-five times, and the term "God" five 
hundred and forty-two times ; while in his four 



52 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

great epistles, which have so extensively influ- 
enced theology, he speaks of the " Father " only 
sixteen times, and of "God" three hundred and 
fifty-one times. It is not assumed that Paul failed 
to grasp Christ's thought of the fatherhood of 
God. His writings show clearly that he did under- 
stand that idea, and experienced great comfort in 
the consciousness that God is a tender Father from 
whose love nothing can separate his children. 
But here is a remarkable change in terminology, 
to say the least. It is not without significance 
that Paul said, "Nothing can separate us from the 
love of God," instead of, " from the love of our 
Father." Terminology and thought are closely 
connected. The very name "Father" involves 
some of the closest and tenderest ties known to 
earth; while the term "God" is formal, govern- 
mental, and, in philosophical usage, often imper- 
sonal. Paul reverses in a striking manner the 
emphasis of Christ's terminology. This indi- 
cates a change from the atmosphere of Christ's 
habitual thought of God, even though Paul shows 
that he understood that thought. 

When once we get beyond the New Testament 
writings, the change is rapid and unmistakable. 
Greek philosophy knew nothing about a personal 
Father in Christ's sense, but it understood some- 
thing about a God, and had long been accustomed 
to the use of that term. Hence that was the 



OF THE GOSPEL 53 

point at which it attached itself to Christianity. 
After three centuries of philosophical manipula- 
tion, there emerged a metaphysical tri-personal 
God that was supposed to meet the requirements 
of thought. But what was gained for thinking, 
if there was a gain, was lost for life. Jesus' 
tender, loving, watchful, personal Father had dis- 
appeared from theological Christianity, which 
had received, as a substitute, the attenuated God 
of Graeco-Christian speculation, cut off from touch 
with living men. The philosophical tri-personal- 
ization, whether true or false, had resulted in a 
practical depersonalization of God. 

2. The substitution of a Logos doctrine for 
the historical Jesus. When the philosophical 
spirit began to work on the Christian tradition, 
the effort to understand the nature of the founder 
of the new religion was naturally one of its first 
undertakings. The rudiments of this christologi- 
cal speculation are found within the New Testa- 
ment itself, in the prologue to John's gospel, if 
not throughout his entire writings, in Paul's 
epistles, and in the epistle to the Hebrews. In 
the New Testament, however, true to the spirit 
and purpose everywhere characterizing those 
writings, the matter is still always presented in 
its practical religious aspects. 

Outside the New Testament the discussion 
soon developed into a purely philosophical specu- 



54 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

lation. The point of attachment was the Greek 
doctrine of the Logos ; and the first step was the 
identification of the historical Jesus with the 
Logos. The Logos doctrine had already had a 
history of five hundred years, and had become a 
component part of Greek philosophy. When 
Jesus was identified with the Logos, therefore, he 
at once became the subject of metaphysical inves- 
tigation and definition. The historical person 
lost his vivid distinctness, and the philosophical 
idea took his place. Christology displaced Christ. 
The second step was the inclusion of the Logos 
within the essence of the Deity. Jesus thus 
became philosophically incorporated into a meta- 
physical God, and the further trinitarian specu- 
lations became a necessity. 

The point at issue here is not whether the ideas 
advanced were right or wrong, but the fact of the 
substitution of ideas for the personal reality. The 
change removed Christ from the realm of his- 
torical and practical life to the realm ot specula- 
tive metaphysics. It was a kind of christological 
pantheism, as if in our day a doctrine of Christ 
should be worked out in conformity with the cur- 
rent ruling philosophical idea — that of evolution. 

3. The substitution of a juridical " justifica- 
tion" for Christ's personal "forgiveness." Jesus 
regarded sin as a personal matter ; it is not so 
much the transgression of law as disloyalty to the 



OF THE GOSPEL 55 

author of law ; not so much the breaking of God's 
law as the breaking of God's heart. The require- 
ment is supreme love to God and fraternal love 
to man. Sin is failure so to love. Sin is, there- 
fore, essentially personal. 

As sin was personal in Jesus' thought, so also 
was the forgiveness of sin. He habitually spoke 
of forgiveness. It was the nature of the Father 
to forgive, and the desire of his heart that 
men should repent in order that they might be 
forgiven. The number of times he used the 
word cannot adequately represent the place it 
had in his mind and teaching; for the same 
thought is conveyed by other words and by par- 
ables. He used the term ''forgive " or "forgive- 
ness" twenty-six times in the gospels. He used 
the word "justify" only twice, in the Pauline 
sense, if indeed these two are so used. In Matt. 
12:37 he says, referring to the final judgment, 
"By thy words thou shalt be justified," and in 
Luke 18:14 he says, "The publican went down 
to his house justified rather than the Pharisee." 

Here again the future development was started 
within the New Testament. It is a well-known 
fact that Paul employed the term "justification" 
to express the idea for which Christ used the 
word "forgiveness." Paul speaks of justification 
thirty times in his extant letters, and of forgive- 
ness only six times. But, still more significant, 



56 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

in his four great epistles he uses "justification" 
twenty-eight times and "forgiveness" only once, 
and then in a quotation from the Old Testament. 
With Paul himself it may be that here, also, the 
change was one of terminology rather than of 
thought. It must also be borne in mind that he 
was combating legalism polemically, and that 
this influenced his terminology. Still it can 
hardly be questioned that Paul's conception of 
the matter was more restricted than Christ's, 
due to his pharisaical education and the persist- 
ence of old habits of thinking. 

Outside the religious atmosphere that pervades 
the New Testament, this legal view of forgive- 
ness made rapid way. The metaphysical dis- 
cussions concerning God were foreign to Roman 
habits of thought, and were left in the main to 
Greek theologians. The Romans took up rather 
the questions concerning sin and salvation. And 
when the Roman theologian, dominated by the 
legal genius of his nation, read the New Testa- 
ment, he did not choose Christ's term "forgive- 
ness," but Paul's "justification." The law knows 
no forgiveness. And so Tertullian, the father of 
Roman theology, himself a trained Roman lawyer, 
grasped that which he could understand, and at 
the very start turned the theology of salvation 
into that legal and governmental channel which 
it has followed ever since. 



OF THE GOSPEL 57 

The significance of the change is evident. 
Forgiveness is not merely the remission of pen- 
alty. It is not the judicial pronouncement that 
the repenting sinner is now acquitted; much less 
that he is acquitted because someone else has 
paid the penalty for him, as later theology has it. 
That is not forgiveness, but something else and 
something less. Forgiveness is pre-eminently a 
personal matter : the Father's pardon of the 
repentant son, the removal of the personal bar- 
rier that sin has raised to interrupt the com- 
munion between them. It is not a commercial 
barter nor a governmental expedient, but a free 
act of pardoning grace ; and as such Christ always 
represents it. Justification, on the contrary, is 
formal, legal, forensic : the acquittal of a criminal 
at the bar of justice, or the pardon of the guilty 
subject by his monarch. It is entirely inadequate 
to do justice to the thought of Jesus, and in its 
later theological form does decided violence to 
his teaching. Its substitution for "forgiveness" 
in the theology of the church has occasioned a 
serious depersonalization of Christianity. 

4. Closely connected with the foregoing was 
the development of a legal and governmental 
view of the atonement, to the exclusion of its 
personal aspects. 

Christ did not say much about the atonement, 
which has occupied so important a place in the 



58 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

theology of the church ; and he never used the 
word itself. Still, he said enough about that 
which the word stands for to assure us both of 
its purpose and of its spirit. It is safe to say 
that the historical development of that doctrine 
would have been widely different if his personal 
way of looking at it had not been exchanged for 
a legal view ; for the elimination of the personal 
element wrought sad havoc here. Later dog- 
matics had much to say about the atonement as 
the satisfaction of the justice of God. But in 
Christ's thought the atonement was not the satis- 
faction of God's justice so much as the satisfaction 
of the Father's love. ''God so loved the world 
that he gave his son." And with this all the rest 
of the New Testament agrees. Paul says : M God 
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we 
were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Not once 
in all the New Testament is the term "justice of 
God " used in the later theological sense, although 
once, in the classical passage in Romans, God is 
said to be just, or righteous, in connection with 
the atonement. It is doubtless true that the 
atonement is intimately connected with God's 
justice. But it is no less true that theology has 
emphasized this phase of the subject out of all 
proportion, and has overlooked the fact that, 
while the New Testament does not speak of the 
judicial aspect of the atonement at all, or at most 



OF THE GOSPEL 59 

only once, it does speak of the atonement again 
and again as being the satisfaction of God's love. 
By this wrong emphasis great injustice has been 
done to the more personal aspects of the mat- 
ter. Even if God could save a man by some 
legal device, if he could reclaim a world by some 
governmental makeshift, it would not accomplish 
his purpose unless it reached the hearts of men 
and bound them to his own in truest love. God 
wants loving sons, not merely loyal subjects; 
and love is personal. The cross of Christ is the 
supreme manifestation of personal vicarious divine 
love. 

Thus in these various ways- — and the special 
instances might be multiplied — was the personal 
element crowded out of the gospel of Jesus, as 
the result of tendencies set on foot in the early 
transformation of Christianity. The time came 
when theological and institutional Christianity 
almost ceased to be a personal matter between 
man and God and man and his fellow-men, and 
resolved itself into the observance of churchly 
ceremonies and adherence to a set of scholastic 
ideas. The personal power of God had departed, 
and there remained an arid wilderness of imper- 
sonal substitutes. 

The moral eclipse of the gospel. 

The theological eclipse of the gospel had sub- 
stituted acceptance of the orthodox creed for 



60 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

loyal trust in Christ ; and had thereby made sal- 
vation a matter of intellectual conviction rather 
than of moral and religious regeneration. 

The ecclesiastical eclipse had substituted faith 
in the church for faith in Christ, and had made 
salvation a matter of ordinances and observances, 
instead of a vital renewal by the power of God, 
conditioned upon a new attitude toward him. 

These two changes led naturally to a great 
moral eclipse of the gospel. The theological 
development, by identifying Christianity with 
philosophy, had removed it from the realm of 
motive and action, and so had divorced it from 
the practical life of the world. The domain of 
ethics was left to take care of itself. A man was 
all right if his thinking was orthodox ; he might 
do what he pleased. Above all things he must 
not be a heretic ; and heresy was a matter of 
right thinking, not of right doing. That, in a 
nutshell, is the theoretical justification of the 
morality of the Middle Ages. The theory was 
not lived out in uniform consistency, fortunately 
for the world ; but that was the logic of the situa- 
tion which made possible the immorality of the 
so-called Christian church. 1 

1 A full discussion of this subject belongs to the history of 
ethics, and would here lead us too far afield. As early as the 
Montanist struggle a party had begun to protest against the 
continuous secularizing of the church and its lax morality. 
But the great opportunist party contended that too strict a mo- 



OF THE GOSPEL 61 

The ecclesiastical evolution, on the other hand, 
kept in touch with practical life, but changed 
the standard of living. The bishop took the 
place of Christ as lawgiver. It may be claimed, 
and is claimed, that this was no change ; that 
Christ continued to legislate through the bishop. 

rality would interfere with the dominion of the church over the 
world, and began to distinguish between the morality required of 
the clergy and that necessary among the laity. Hence it soon 
came to pass that " in order to be a Christian a man no longer 
required in any sense to be a saint." There was legitimized an 
average morality, in accordance with which the whole world 
could live. Those who were not satisfied with this loose morality 
could console themselves with the meritorious practice of asceti- 
cism. As Harnack says: "Alongside of a code of morals to 
which anyone in case of need could adapt himself, the church 
began to legitimize a morality of self-chosen, refined sanctity 
which really required no Redeemer." This asceticism, culminat- 
ing in monachism, exercised, from the end of the third century, 
an ever-increasing power in the Catholic church, with its alluring 
invitation to earnest spirits to escape the growing corruption by 
flight from the world. Thus the church, in its threefold order of 
priests, monks, and laity, offered also a threefold piety, some ele- 
ment of which was suited to every man. The theoretical founda- 
tion for these distinctions was found in the famous twofold mo- 
rality : natural morality, based upon the via media of Aristotle and 
the four cardinal virtues ; and supernatural morality, based upon 
I Cor. 13 : 13 and the Beatitudes, this preconditioned by celibacy, 
poverty, and obedience, and possible only through the church and 
for the clergy. Here should also be mentioned the Jesuitical doc- 
trine of "probabilism " : "if an opinion is probable, it is lawful 
to follow it, though the contrary opinion is more probable." For, 
although this doctrine was not "scientifically" formulated until 
1577, still the principle then enunciated had been operative in the 
church throughout the Middle Ages. 



62 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

But the impartial student of history must de- 
mur. As the church moved down the historical 
stream and came into contact with unfriendly 
influences, it was corrupted by them. Noth- 
ing is more certain. The bishops who were 
made the guardians and interpreters of the truth 
were fallible men, and were themselves involved 
in the hostile and corrupting environment. Thus 
the moral standard of the church was ever 
changing, and apparently ever falling lower. 
Moreover, the probability of ethical reform was 
lost from the fact that the standard was now 
within the church itself, and firmly fixed there by 
the very theory of development that had led to 
this condition of things. The church did not 
need to go back to Christ, for itself was Christ 
perpetuated. It did not need to return to the 
New Testament, for it continued the New Testa- 
ment. Thus ever sufficient unto itself, and re- 
volving upon itself, supposing that it could not 
get away from its Lord, it moved forward oblivi- 
ous to the fact that it was plunging into moral 
degradation, and that its path was strewn with 
deeds of moral monstrosity. Both the blind and 
the blind leaders of the blind fell together into 
the ditch. 

Fortunately here, also, the result was not wholly 
a logical conclusion from the premises. In spite 
of the church theory, both bishops and people 



OF THE GOSPEL 63 

caught glimpses of Christ's divine moral require- 
ments. Indeed, the gospel of Jesus somehow 
succeeded in perpetuating itself in the church. 
We must never forget that the reason for the 
being of both church and creed was Jesus Christ. 
His glory might be dimmed ; it was never wholly- 
darkened nor extinguished. However far the 
church might get away from its divine Master's 
leadership, it could never break entirely with 
him. We may adapt to the church the words of 
the poet, and say truly: 

But yet I know, where'er I go, 
That there hath passed away a glory from the earth ; 

but still also we must add : 

Not in entire forgetfulness, 
And not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory does it come, 
From God who is its home. 

It is evident, therefore, that the result of this 
long process of historical development was the 
eclipse of the gospel of Jesus, an eclipse so dark 
and dense that it might be called total were it not 
for the dim radiance which still penetrated the 
obscuring dogmatic and ecclesiastical formations 
— a radiance that has deceived men into think- 
ing that the clouds thus illumined were them- 
selves divine. In the night that came before the 
dawn of the Reformation even the light of the 



64 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

gospel had become darkness, and how great was 
that darkness ! 

In concluding this chapter it is worth while to 
pass in review the results reached. The funda- 
mental thing in the obscuration of the gospel was 
the dethronement of Jesus Christ from his govern- 
ing position in Christianity as Savior from sin and 
Lord of living. This displacement took a double 
form. Ecclesiastically, due chiefly to Roman in- 
fluence, it involved a practical change in the object 
of faith — faith in Christ being transformed into 
faith in the church, which now came to be regarded 
as the mediator of salvation, being the depository 
and interpreter of the saving truth, and the admin- 
istrator of the saving ordinances. Theologically, 
due chiefly to Greek influence, it involved a still 
more fundamental doctrinal change, which af- 
fected both the object of faith and its nature — 
faith as religious confidence and trust in Christ 
being superseded by intellectual assent to a body 
of knowledge authoritatively formulated into a 
creed. This transformed the pistis into a gnosis, 
and identified Christianity with speculative the- 
ology, thereby divorcing it from the realm of 
the conscience and the will, and virtually shut- 
ting it up within the domain of the intellect. 

This primary transformation of the gospel, 
involving the double displacement of Christ, con- 



OF THE GOSPEL 65 

tained in principle the whole matter, and deter- 
mined the historical development of Christianity 
for twelve centuries. During this period the 
germ so introduced expanded, and firmly in- 
trenched itself in an elaborate system of dog- 
matics and a firmly articulated ecclesiastical 
organization, which removed Christianity still 
farther from the purity, simplicity, and power of 
the original gospel. 

The eclipse thus accomplished was accom- 
panied by the depersonalization of Christianity. 
Personal loyalty to Christ gave way to alle- 
giance to the impersonal church and creed. 
The personal leadership of the Holy Spirit 
was superseded by the authority of the imper- 
sonal tradition and the written word of the 
Scriptures, mediated in turn by the impersonal 
church. Jesus' personal Father, the true God 
of Christianity, was transformed into a meta- 
physical idea. Jesus himself became identified 
with the ruling conception of contemporary Greek 
philosophy, that of the Logos. Jesus' idea of 
the personal nature of sin and forgiveness was 
changed into the legal view of sin and the juridi- 
cal idea of justification ; while his thought of the 
atonement as the saving expression of God's love 
was converted into the propitiation of God's 
wrath and the satisfaction of his justice. 

These fundamental changes helped on, if they 



66 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

did not directly cause, the dark moral eclipse 
which the gospel suffered during the Middle 
Ages. Christianity being theoretically removed 
from the realm of the conscience and the will, its 
great moral requirements became practically 
nullified in the world of affairs. Men attached 
themselves to Christianity by swearing allegiance 
to the church and its creed, while they kept on 
living according to the old laws of the selfish and 
sinful world, even turning the church itself into 
an engine of worldly ambition. Thus it came to 
pass that Christianity, so radically had it changed 
its character and lost its light, became itself a 
part of the dark night which settled over the 
life of the Middle Ages, broken only here and 
there by the narrow circle of light cast by some 
lone saint who had felt the inspiration of the still 
imperishable faith, and had come face to face 
with his undying personal Lord. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE HISTORICAL RECOVERY OF THE GOSPEL. 

The movement for the recovery of the gospel 
is due, as has already been shown, to the modern 
spirit and its insatiable desire to get at the 
reality of things. It was the awakening of this 
spirit during the latter half of the fifteenth 
century, and its investigation of the world at first 
hand along the various avenues of knowledge, 
that gave birth to our modern civilization. The 
domain of religious life and thought did not 
escape, but to this also the new spirit finally 
turned in its quest for ultimate truth. 

Just as the obscuration of the gospel was not 
a simple and momentary thing, but the result of 
a long and intricate process of development, so 
has it been also with the recovery of the gospel. 
It is being accomplished through a complex his- 
torical process, which has already been going 
on for four centuries, and in which we are still 
engaged. Yet the end is so nearly reached that 
the significance of the movement is discernible, 
some of its results are reasonably well established, 
and its final valuation is approximately possible. 

There are three clearly marked periods in the 
67 



68 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

progress of events. The first is that of the 
great Reformation, when the modern spirit broke 
forth in a vigorous and stormy demand for prac- 
tical religious satisfaction. The second is the 
post-Reformation relapse, in which Protestantism 
turned its attention to doctrinal controversy and 
the formation of systems of theology that gave the 
old Catholic heresy a Protestant sanction and an 
enlarged influence. The third is the period of the 
nineteenth century Reformation, characterized as 
truly as the first by the demand for reality ; 
while, with greater patience and a clearer under- 
standing of the situation, it has been working its 
way to the desired end by the scientific method 
and a return to the historical sources of Chris- 
tianity. A section may well be devoted to each 
of these phases of the historical movement for 
the recovery of the gospel. 

I. THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION. 

Properly speaking, the sixteenth century 
Reformation was not a theological reformation ; 
or, at most, it was such only incidentally. Pri- 
marily it was a practical reform of ecclesiastical 
and religious abuses. In other words, it was the 
reformation of the Roman element in contempo- 
rary Christianity. 

Let it be recalled that in the early obscuration 
of the gospel the primitive trust in Christ and 



OF THE GOSPEL 69 

loving loyalty to him had suffered a double dis- 
placement — in the nature of faith and in the ob- 
ject of faith. Passing for the present the first of 
these, the change in the object of faith was in 
turn of a twofold character, Christ being dis- 
placed by the church and the creed. Or, as 
theology was of only secondary importance to 
the Roman mind, it is perhaps more accurate 
to say that in the West salvation came to be 
regarded as mediated by the church through the 
ordinances and the creed. This substitution 
of an ecclesiastical organization for Christ was 
the distinctive Roman contribution to the devel- 
opment of Christianity. 

Now, the Lutheran Reformation was at first 
and in its real genius a revolt against this Roman 
perversion of Christianity. It was, therefore, of 
a practical rather than of a theological nature. 
It was an attempt to reform the glaring evils in 
the existing church, and to make salvation a real 
and living matter, depending on right relations to 
God through Jesus Christ. It was an attempt of 
the new religious spirit to restore Christ to the 
position that had been usurped by the church. 
This gave it its character and determined its 
scope. 

The story of the Reformation is too familiar to 
be retold here. The corruption of the church had 
become so scandalous that it could no longer be 



jo RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

tolerated by the independent spirit of the awaken- 
ing world. At the same time the new temper 
could not be satisfied with a mechanical salvation 
that came through the mediation of priests and 
the sale of indulgences. The religious demands 
of the new age became incarnate in Martin Luther. 
There was the hopeless struggle for a real salva- 
tion, which could not be found in the endless 
round of penances and churchly works. There 
was the dawning light, followed by the glorious 
day, as the New Testament at last lay before him, 
and he came into touch with the living God by 
faith in Jesus Christ, the light of the world. 
And then, as he began to realize how radically 
contemporary Christianity had departed from the 
New Testament way of salvation, so joyously 
verified in his own experience, there was a deter- 
mined outcry against the corrupt institutional 
mediator of an artificial salvation — an outcry 
in which all the pent-up struggling spirit within 
him burst forth in an indignant and vigorous 
opposition so deep and strong that the old order 
had to give way before it. It was the protest of 
the aroused spirit against the church instead of the 
Christ ; it was the indignation of the hungry soul 
at a stone in place of bread; it was an irresistible 
outburst of the religious nature demanding living 
satisfaction. The watchword of Paul, after his 
bitter struggle for righteousness by the deeds of 



OF THE GOSPEL 71 

the law, was caught up by humanity after its long 
contest with the new legalism of ecclesiastical 
prescriptions, and " justification by faith in Christ" 
again offered a way of escape for the weary and 
despairing soul. It was a revival of the very es- 
sence of Christianity — a real and remarkable 
recovery of the gospel. 

The religious and practical character of the 
Reformation is evident. In this, also, it was a 
return to the true spirit of the gospel. One is 
profoundly impressed with this fact. Coming 
into the spirit of the Reformation is like step- 
ping back into the apostolic age. We emerge 
from the atmosphere of hopeless striving for 
a salvation that may be bought by human ef- 
forts and worldly gold into the free air of the 
old glorious gospel of the New Testament, with 
its gracious gift of reconciliation and living com- 
munion with God through Jesus Christ, of peace 
for the conscience through justification by faith, 
and of divine power for help in every time of 
need. It was this that made the Reformation so 
welcome, and that gave it its power. When such 
a salvation was offered to a world longing for 
religious reality it was everywhere hailed with 
joyous acceptance. 

The Lutheran Reformation did not get beyond 
this practical religious stage. Or, if it did, it got 
beyond its proper range, and lost itself among the 



72 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

theological rocks and shoals where its peculiar 
genius could not serve as pilot. The doctrines 
changed by the Reformation were only those that 
had an immediate bearing upon the practical 
issues involved. The doctrine of salvation by 
trusting the church, receiving its ordinances, and 
obeying its injunctions was changed back into the 
New Testament doctrine of salvation by faith in 
Jesus Christ. That was the fundamental thing,and 
furnished the material principle of the Reforma- 
tion. It involved the repudiation of the authority 
of the church as co-ordinate with the Bible, and 
substituted the new doctrine of the all-sufficiency 
of the New Testament as the Christian's guide in 
matters of faith and practice. This was the 
formal principle of the Reformation. It involved, 
again, the denial of the church's official author- 
ity to interpret Scripture, and substituted the 
idea of individual right and responsibility in 
interpretation. This constituted the individual- 
istic element characteristic of Protestantism. 
These three doctrines, salvation by faith, the sole 
authority of Scripture, individual right and re- 
sponsibility in interpreting Scripture — all of them 
relating to the practical issues of a great religious 
reformation — are pretty much the extent of the 
doctrinal reform of the sixteenth century move- 
ment. No one questions their great importance ; 
few will question their harmony with the spirit of 



OF THE GOSPEL 73 

the New Testament gospel. They still remain 
the three fundamental and distinctive principles 
of Protestantism. 

During the centuries of churchly life under the 
influence of Rome, the dust of superstition and 
the cobwebs of human fantasy had gathered over 
the face of God's religious masterpiece and ob- 
scured its true character. The Reformation 
cleared away the accumulations of the passing 
years, and revealed again to the world the match- 
less power and beauty of the Master's thought. 

II. THE POST-REFORMATION RE-ECLIPSE OF THE 
GOSPEL. 

If the sixteenth century Reformation had fully 
succeeded, we should not need to discuss further 
the recovery of the gospel. But unfortunately it 
was only a partial success ; and that for two 
reasons. In the first place, it emancipated only 
a portion of the Christian world. The other part 
remained, and still remains, under the old erro- 
neous ecclesiastical system. Indeed, that system 
strengthened its hold and increased its claims 
during the struggle. 

The second cause of partial failure lay within 
the camp of the Reformers themselves. It must be 
remembered that they also had been educated in 
the intellectual environment of the old system. 
Their mental tendencies were established in the 



74 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

groove which the church had followed for centu- 
ries. The old angle of vision had not been 
wholly altered. They were feeling their way in 
the midst of the semi-darkness of the new dawn. 
They still saw through a glass darkly. The 
smoke of the battle yet hung over the field and 
obscured the clearness of their sight. And so it 
happened that, while two or three fundamental 
principles were clearly discerned and became 
the governing ideas of the reform movement, 
these purely religious and ethical convictions 
were held by men of the old scholastic temper, 
and remained entangled in the traditional 
metaphysical conceptions. Thus the changes in 
dogmatics did not affect the underlying theologi- 
cal presuppositions, but only certain individual 
doctrines; and Protestant theology became the 
continuation of Catholic theology, as this in turn 
had perpetuated Greek philosophy. 

Not that this was done consciously and by 
intention. It is simply an illustration of the 
persistency of ideas, and of the fact that a man 
cannot wholly escape the influence of his educa- 
tional environment. Under the power of the 
awakened religious impulse, the Reformers broke 
away from the old order of things in a few vital 
points, and thought that thereby they had broken 
with it everywhere. This mistake was the easier 
because that with which they did not break was 



OF THE GOSPEL 75 

of a different character from the other, had come 
into the church at a different time and from a 
different source, and was beyond their immediate 
purpose. They gave their attention to the Roman 
addition to the gospel; that which escaped them 
was the older metaphysical Greek obscuration. A 
brief review of the historical situation will make 
this evident. 

The distinctively theological interest which 
first began to make itself strongly felt in the 
church during the second century centered im- 
mediately in Christology and the doctrine of the 
Trinity. These doctrines were converted into 
dogmas by the first six general councils, and 
have always continued to be regarded in a pecul- 
iar sense as the fundamental dogmatic heritage 
of the church. They are justly called the Greek 
contribution to Christianity, for, however they 
may have been influenced by the Roman mind, 
they were born of the Greek spirit, and their 
form and development were decisively deter- 
mined by Greek philosophy. That these dog- 
mas soon ceased to be living issues and to find a 
place in the interests of men did not disturb 
their theological authority, but rather strength- 
ened it. The fact that they became petrified 
made them an all the more satisfactory, because 
more unshakable, foundation for a church which 
was built upon the traditions of the past. It was 



76 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

upon this foundation of fixed dogma that Augus- 
tine set up his theological structure of sin, grace, 
and means of grace, and the whole Middle Ages 
occupied itself with tearing down and rebuilding 
in varying forms this superstructure. It never 
thought of interfering with the foundation. The 
only part of the work of the Middle Ages that 
could claim at all the same character as that of 
the old dogmatic symbols was that of the fourth 
Lateran council (121 5) which established as 
dogma the doctrines of the eucharist, baptism, 
and penance, and attached these directly to the 
old dogmas of Christology and the Trinity. 
These new dogmas, however, clearly in no way 
weakened the authority of those formulated over 
five hundred years before, but rather increased 
this authority by adding another layer to the 
foundation. Still this later addition, even though 
regarded as dogma, and therefore more sacred 
than the changeable theology, was never ac- 
corded quite the same reverence given to the 
more ancient stratum of dogma, as the following 
period demonstrates. 

Nothing more clearly manifests the untheo- 
logical temper of the Reformation than its treat- 
ment of this Catholic dogma. The ancient 
layer, which had remained crystallized for a 
thousand years, the Reformation never even seri- 
ously thought of calling in question. As much for 



OF THE GOSPEL 77 

the Augsburg Confession as for the council of 
Trent the church dogmas of Christologv and the 
Trinity remained the unshaken foundation. With 
reference to the newer dogmatic formation of 
1 2 1 5 [the eucharist, baptism, and penance) the 
Reformation assumed a vacillating attitude : v 
the real reforms were wrought out in the change- 
able superstructure of theological, but not dog- 
matically fixed, doctrines of sin, grace, and means 
of grace, built up bv Augustine and the Middle 
Ages. In this last department the Reformation 
succeeded fairly weli in returning to the New 
Testament teaching ; in the second it tried arte 
failed : while in the first it did not even make the 
attempt, This meant that the Greek element 
which had been incorporated into Christianity in 
the ancient dogmatic formation was not discovered 
or removed, and that the nrst and greatest heresy — 
that Christianity is a body of knowledge upon the 
acceptance of which salvation depends — oassed 
over into Protestantism unchallenged and un- 
changed. This was the rock that wrecked the 
Reformation, checked it midway in its successful 
course, and broke Protestantism into fragments. 
A change of view concerning the ancient 
dogma is, however, to be noted in the Reform- 
ers. They did not retain the dogmas of Chris- 
tologv and the Trinity on the ground that they 
were the authoritative dogmas of the church — 



78 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

by no means ; but because it was not perceived 
that they were not contained in the New Testa- 
ment. They were supposed to be the true 
evangelical expression of the New Testament 
teaching, indeed to be nothing other than the 
gospel itself — an assumption that still remains 
so firmly fixed in Protestantism that a man who 
calls them in question is immediately regarded 
as a heretic, in wide circles, on the ground 
that he rejects the New Testament teaching con- 
cerning God and the divinity of Christ ; it 
not being perceived that this judgment is pro- 
nounced on the basis of the Catholic councils 
instead of the Protestant New Testament. At 
the Reformation, therefore, the Greek dogmas 
became fused with the gospel itself even more 
intimately than before, for now they had been 
projected back into the Bible. 

Before the sixteenth century three ideas with 
respect to the attainment of salvation were more 
or less influential : that of trust in the church and 
its ordinances, that of acceptance of the creed, and 
the dimmed but divinely persistent idea of faith 
in Christ. The question of salvation through the 
church was disposed of by the Reformation, 
while the idea of salvation by faith in Christ 
experienced a vigorous revival. The contest 
now remained, a contest subtle and unsuspected, 
between the two surviving principles — the newly 



OF THE GOSPEL 79 

revived idea of salvation by faith in Christ, and 
the old idea of salvation through faith in the creed. 

Here, then, was the insoluble antinomy of 
Protestantism : on the one hand the fundamental 
principle that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ 
and by that alone ; on the other hand, the per- 
sistent idea, adopted from Catholicism, that there 
is saving efficacy in a body of knowledge; or, at 
least, that a certain system of dogmas, regarded 
as true doctrine, must be accepted if a man is to 
be an orthodox Christian. And another anti- 
nomy growing out of or closely associated with 
it; perhaps, indeed, the same thing under a dif- 
ferent aspect : on the one hand, the dominion 
and free guidance of the Spirit of God ; on the 
other hand, the written law of the Scriptures 
regarded as an infallibly inspired theological 
statute book. The history of Protestantism from 
that day to this is the story of the attempted 
solution of these antinomies. 

As long as the first religious fervor and enthu- 
siasm was in the ascendant, the principle of justi- 
fication by faith naturally remained the dominant 
one. But in process of time important changes 
took place, three of which are especially worthy 
of notice. 

1. Due partly to the need of authoritative 
teaching, felt by Protestants themselves, partly to 
the struggle with Catholicism, and partly to the 



80 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

survival of the old idea of the efficacy of true 
knowledge, together with the theological tenden- 
cies brought over from Catholicism, the Reform- 
ers early turned their attention toward questions 
of dogmatic theology. There resulted the elabo- 
rate doctrinal systems of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. As has already been 
observed, these did not differ in principle, nor, 
indeed, in many of their conclusions, from Catho- 
lic theology. It is a generally acknowledged 
fact that Calvin is in the direct line of theologi- 
cal succession : Tertullian, Augustine, Calvin. 
The same thing is true to a less extent of 
the other Reformation theologians. These sys- 
tems perpetuated the old underlying idea of 
Christianity as the true system of knowledge, the 
old scholastic subtleties, and the old unreality 
and separation from living issues. 

Moreover, dogmatic theology acquired even 
increased influence in Protestantism. In Roman 
Catholicism, the church with its sacerdotal ordi- 
nances and spectacular worship shared the field 
of interest with dogmatics. Indeed, it was the 
church that occupied by far the most important 
place in the religious life of the masses, while 
theology was relegated to the scholars and 
teachers. In Protestantism this was reversed. 
When the church ceased to hold the power of 
dispensing salvation, it fell from its high place 



OF THE GOSPEL 81 

in the minds of men; and Protestantism has 
often had a struggle to maintain it with a 
decent support. On the other hand, theology 
has received all of the attention which it for- 
merly shared with the church, and every Prot- 
estant, be he educated or uneducated, competent 
or incompetent, has his own doctrinal system 
which he wants every other man to adopt. 
Theology received a false importance in the 
days following the struggle with Gnosticism. It 
retained that false position through the Middle 
Ages, when men were subjected to torture that 
their souls might be saved by the compulsory 
acceptance of the right doctrine. But in Prot- 
estantism it exalted itself still higher, and 
increased its pretensions, so that its reign would 
have become intolerable but for the growing 
idea of individual liberty and the revival of the 
principle of salvation by faith, which succeeded 
in coloring with a warmer radiance the icy theo- 
logical peaks. 

2. Another result of the struggle with Catholi- 
cism was a new emphasis put upon the Bible, 
causing a reversal of the relative positions occu- 
pied by the material and the formal principles 
of the Reformation. 

The infallible authority of the Bible was not 
at first the most important tenet of Protestant- 
ism. That principle was justification by faith. 



82 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

This is sufficiently apparent everywhere in the 
early stages of the Reformation. For instance, 
Luther's loose and free use of the Scriptures is 
well known. Justification by faith was the great 
thing, by which all else, even the Bible itself, 
was judged by him. The conditions of the early 
days of Christianity were reproduced. Indeed, the 
parallel is remarkable. When at the first Christian- 
ity was a matter of living reality and made men 
free in the Spirit, Christians were satisfied to be 
led of the Spirit. In the first religious exuberance 
of the Reformation, men again felt themselves 
near to God and under the guidance of the 
Spirit ; there was no need of external authority. 
But just as in those early days the need of an 
external tangible authority was felt more and 
more as spiritual inspiration declined and contro- 
versies threatened the church, so it was again in 
the Reformation days. Moreover, the Protes- 
tant must have some standard of appeal in the 
conflict with his Catholic antagonist who rested 
so confidently upon the authority of the church. 
The leadership of the Spirit was too lofty and 
intangible a conception for controversial pur- 
poses. Hence, inasmuch as the authority of the 
church had been repudiated, and the authority 
of the Spirit was inadequate, the Reformers fell 
back upon the Bible, just as the early Christians 
had rallied around the apostolic tradition. 



OF THE GOSPEL 83 

As theology, after the Protestant rejection of 
the church, received all the attention which it 
had previously shared with the church, here also 
an analogous result appeared in the case of the 
Bible, which hitherto had been theoretically 
regarded as co-ordinate authority with tradition 
and the church; it now occupied the field alone, 
and acquired all of the importance that before 
had been distributed. But this was not all. Still 
the standard of appeal was not definite enough. 
Hence under the stress of controversy, in order 
that assurance might be doubly sure, the Bible 
was made inflexible by a mechanical theory of 
inspiration which converted it into an absolutely 
complete, inerrant, all-sufficient Christian statute 
book. The Bible, so defined, was then substi- 
tuted for "justification by faith" as the corner- 
stone of Protestantism. Thus the material and 
formal principles of the Reformation had ex- 
changed places. 

3. And now, or along with these two move- 
ments, another thing took place: the system of 
dogmatics that had been formulated by the church 
during the course of its historical development, 
and had been taken up, elaborated, and empha- 
sized by Protestantism, was unconsciously read 
back into the Bible, and was supposed to be 
contained therein bodily. Romanism had no 
need of such an idea, because it boldly asserted 



84 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

that the Bible revelation was continued in the 
church, which was therefore divinely authorized 
to promulgate a doctrinal system, even one con- 
taining new elements. But with Protestantism 
the case was different. It could not go beyond 
the Bible. And yet here was its great system of 
theology which was regarded as both a true and 
a necessary part of Christianity. Evidently, 
therefore, it must be in the Bible. And so, 
without realizing that the dogmatics had come 
down the historical stream and was composed 
largely of extra-biblical material, floated with 
difficulty by proof-texts often wrongly inter- 
preted, the whole system received the divine 
sanction of its supposed biblical source. Prot- 
estants read the words of Paul and thought the 
thoughts of Tertullian and Augustine and Calvin, 
and Paul was held responsible for the whole 
thing. 

Thus the theological situation had become 
greatly complicated. Here was a system of dog- 
matics derived generically from Catholicism, 
with false premises as to its own importance due 
to the old Greek idea of the saving value of 
knowledge, and largely made up of elements of 
the ancient philosophical and scientific culture. 
This system had acquired even greater promi- 
nence when the church, with which it had former- 
ly shared attention, lost its hold upon Protestants. 



OF THE GOSPEL 85 

Meanwhile, under the stress of controversy, the 
material principle of the Reformation, salvation 
by faith, had yielded first place to the formal 
principle of the solitary and all-sufficient author- 
ity of the Scriptures ; while, in the exigencies of 
the situation, and under false ideas of inspiration, 
these were transformed into a hard-and-fast arti- 
ficial Christian statute book. Then the dogmatic 
system, with its false presuppositions and ancient 
culture, was read back into the Bible with its new 
mechanical limitations, and all was surrounded 
by the divine halo that belongs to religion alone. 
Hands off theology! hands off the authorized view 
of the Bible ! because the gospel of Jesus is divine. 
With error bolstering error, and the sanctities of 
religion made to bolster both, is it any wonder 
that for long weary years the error held sway, 
and still does so? For even now it is only by 
gradual degrees that the real truth concerning 
this historical process is becoming clear and 
making its influence felt. 

We now come to another and entirely new 
element in the post-Reformation eclipse of the 
gospel. 

A change had been passing over the thought 
of the world. In the intellectual renaissance of 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a new cul- 
ture had been born. This had taken place con- 



86 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

temporaneously with the Reformation, but it had 
not yet acquired enough importance seriously to 
affect the question there at issue. It was the 
modern spirit at work in the Reformation, not the 
modern culture. But the new knowledge grew 
apace as discoveries, colonization, inventions, and 
commercial enterprises multiplied. A new 
science was built up in harmony with the new 
knowledge of nature and of life. Perspectives 
changed. New views of life emerged and new 
valuations of thought. In a word, a new cul- 
ture had altered the whole aspect of civiliza- 
tion, and substituted another world-view for that 
of the ancients. Almost literally the old heavens 
and the old earth had passed away : lo ! the 
ancient world was gone. The place that had 
known it now knew it no more. 

All things had become new — except in the- 
ology. "Ay, there's the rub." Let it be recalled 
that in the early transformation of Christianity 
from a pistis to a gnosis the contemporary science 
and philosophy had been taken up into theology 
and made a component part of the religion, 
equally divine with the gospel which they were 
used to express ; that this error was not eradi- 
cated by the Reformation, but was taken over 
into Protestantism along with the Catholic 
dogmatics. This meant that in Protestant theol- 
ogy the ancient culture was projected into the 



OF THE GOSPEL 87 

modern world under the name and protection of 
Christianity. 

As the volume of new knowledge increased, the 
modern mind did not understand the theology 
formed out of elements of the obsolete culture, and 
dropped it. There arose a new king that knew 
not Joseph. The forms of speech that had 
moved the ancient world did not appeal to the 
new age, and were with difficulty even under- 
stood by it. The better it was adapted for its 
purposes in the ancient time, the less value did 
it possess for influencing the new. And so it 
happened that systematic theology still farther 
lost touch with the masses, who either gave 
themselves to practical religious activities, in- 
nocent of doctrine, or patched up a system, each 
man for himself, regardless of the historical 
connections, and thus threw Protestantism into 
the theological chaos that characterizes it in the 
popular mind. The most disastrous results, how- 
ever, appeared among the educated classes, 
where men and women living in the atmosphere 
of the new culture were alienated from a Chris- 
tianity which seemed to be identified with anti- 
quated knowledge, while the alternative had not 
yet presented itself of changing the theology to 
meet the new conditions. 

Here, then, was an entirely new eclipse of 
the gospel. It was eclipsed once by its early 



88 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

entanglement with philosophy. That was bad 
enough, as it was thereby removed from its 
true sphere of operation ; but it was still tol- 
erable, inasmuch as Christianity continued to 
appeal to men's minds as long as the thought 
which it had adopted continued to pass current — 
that is, up to the modern era. But when the 
ancient culture became obsolete, theology ceased 
to have this redeeming virtue, except as men 
threw themselves back into the atmosphere 
of the ancient world. The former obscuration 
of the gospel was due to a change in Christianity; 
this new eclipse was due to a change in the 
world's common stock of knowledge ; due, in- 
deed, to the very fact that traditional Chris- 
tianity did not change, and could not, until the 
old first heresy was discovered and removed. 
Theology might well have taken to itself the 
message of the poet's words : 

New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient 
good uncouth ; 

They must upward still, and onward, who would keep 
abreast of Truth. 

Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! we ourselves must 
Pilgrims be, 

Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the des- 
perate winter sea ; 

Nor attempt the Future's portals with the Past's blood- 
rusted key. 



OF THE GOSPEL 89 

III. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY REFORMATION. 

In the conditions just described are laid bare 
the elements of the nineteenth century theologi- 
cal ferment : a new culture, in which the obso- 
lete science and philosophy of the ancient world 
are perpetuated under the guise of a divine theol- 
ogy that has become a component part of Chris- 
tianity ; this theology demanding the allegiance 
of the modern spirit, weary of speculative subtle- 
ties, and hungry for religious reality. This spirit 
had been nearly dormant, so far as religious ac- 
tivity was concerned, since the Reformation, appar- 
ently having exhausted itself in that great strug- 
gle. It had made little protest against the suc- 
ceeding re-obscuration of the gospel. But now, 
in the latter half of the eighteenth century, it 
awoke to new life, and began again the search 
for truth in the religious realm. The result is the 
nineteenth century Reformation — as truly a great 
Protestant reform as was that of the sixteenth 
century. Indeed, it is the complement of that 
movement : the theological completion of the 
practical and ecclesiastical reformation. As such, 
it strikes at the old Greek fallacy, there over- 
looked, that transformed Christianity from a faith 
into a philosophy. While the Lutheran Reforma- 
tion was practical, although with theological im- 
plications, the new Reformation is theological, but 
destined to have far-reaching practical results. 



90 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

Although developing into a theological re- 
form, however, it was not such in the begin- 
ning, either in motive or in point of attachment. 
The theological citadel was too strongly forti- 
fied, even though in error, to have been taken 
by assault. In fact, the new movement started 
wholly without reference to dogmatic considera- 
tions, and with a temper the farthest removed 
from the dogmatic spirit. The key to the whole 
situation lies in this, that the re-awakened spirit, 
true to its characteristic genius, laid hold of that 
which was most tangible for scientific purposes — 
namely, the Christian records as contained in the 
New Testament literature and the existing mon- 
uments of the history of the church. This led 
to the creation of the new sciences of biblical 
exegesis and church history. The result of this 
return to the Christian records was not so much 
a warfare upon theology as an ignoring of it. 
The new study cut back of the entire stream of 
dogmatic development, and began de novo to 
work upon the sources. 

The investigation into the history of the church 
has gradually laid bare the varied fortune of 
Christianity in the world, and brought to light 
the main facts relating to the development of the 
Catholic church and creed. The results, as they 
affect the present discussion, have furnished the 
subject-matter of the preceding chapter and the 



OF THE GOSPEL 91 

first two sections of this. Little more needs to 
be said here ; it remains only to point out briefly 
the influence of this new study of church history 
upon the rediscovery of the gospel. (1) In the 
first place, the whole process of the obscuration 
of the gospel here lies before us. We see the 
formation and progress of the dogmatic stream, 
taking its rise in post-apostolic times, flowing 
through an alien culture, and emptying its mixed 
and turbid waters into modern religious life. The 
first step toward the rediscovery of the gospel is 
this discovery of its obscuration. (2) This dispels 
the illusion that eighteenth-century Christianity 
was the same thing as New Testament Christianity. 
So successfully had eighteenth-century orthodoxy 
been read back into the New Testament that or- 
thodox and infidel polemicists alike took it 
for granted that the Christian religion stood or 
fell with contemporary theology. The knowl- 
edge of the historical formation of dogmatics in 
post-biblical times relieves the New Testament 
from the onus of upholding the metaphysical 
conclusions of scholasticism. (3) This sug- 
gests what, after all, is the chief value of church 
history so far as the recovery of the gospel is 
concerned. It clears the way for the New Testa- 
ment to exert its normal influence. By the dis- 
closure of the heterogeneous influences surround- 
ing the gospel all through its history, and by 



92 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

making plain the changes in Christianity due to 
its absorption of foreign elements from this en- 
vironment, the work of church history has led us 
back to the New Testament in a new frame of 
mind, and with a keener and more critical appre- 
ciation of its teachings. 

In this new study of the New Testament, the 
formative literature of Christianity, we come to 
the heart of the nineteenth-century movement — 
the open Bible. It was the rediscovery of the 
Bible that led to the recovery of the gospel. 

For centuries the Bible had been a closed book. 
In the earliest days the gospels and apostolic 
letters doubtless had a considerable circulation, 
and were widely read in the churches. But as 
Latin and Greek ceased to be the languages of 
popular speech, the people did not understand 
the Bible as it was read in the liturgical worship 
of the church, and could not have read it for 
themselves, even if they had possessed copies of 
it. But these they did not have. From purely 
mechanical reasons it was next to impossible 
to give the Scriptures a general circulation. 
The epoch-making importance of the printing- 
press in this respect must not be forgotten. 
Furthermore, the emphasis put upon the church 
as a saving institution had transferred popular 
attention to the church with its private confes- 
sional and its public worship, and the people had 



OF THE GOSPEL 93 

lost practical interest in the Bible. To this must 
be added the fact that the right of authoritative 
interpretation had been monopolized by the 
church in the persons of its clergy, so that the 
people had no right to read and interpret the Scrip- 
tures for themselves. For these reasons by the 
beginning of the sixteenth century the Bible was 
almost an unknown book. 

The rediscovery of the Bible began with the 
Lutheran Reformation ; and, conversely, began 
that Reformation. It was the discovery of a com- 
plete copy of the Vulgate in the library of the 
university at Erfurt that started Martin Luther on 
his career of reform. The abuses existing in the 
complex ceremonialism of contemporary Catholi- 
cism could not stand before the direct religious 
simplicity and spiritual power of the New Testa- 
ment gospel. Indeed, it is the instinct of self- 
preservation that leads the Catholic church to 
oppose the popular study of the Scriptures. The 
recovered Bible is destined to bury Catholicism. 

But the Bible did not become known among 
the people at large at the time of the Reforma- 
tion. It had to make its way in the face of de- 
termined opposition and persecution. Traces of 
the Catholic idea of the danger of a popular 
reading of the book were carried over into Prot- 
estantism. The educated classes, especially, 
felt that the common people could not under- 



94 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

stand it and would be excited to lawlessness by 
the reading of it ; and this view seemed to gain 
some justification from the individualistic and 
revolutionary aspects of the Reformation. Hence 
it was many years before the Bible could be read 
in peace. Moreover, it had to be translated into 
the modern languages before it could gain gen- 
eral circulation. Still farther, the undue promi- 
nence that Protestantism early gave to dogmatics 
made the creed, rather than the Scriptures, the 
center of interest. And when men finally reached 
the Bible they came to it through the creed, 
and therefore interpreted it in the light of cer- 
tain theological presuppositions. It could not 
be understood that way, for it is a book of reli- 
gion, not of dogmatics. Besides this, the artificial 
and mechanical theories of inspiration that early 
came to hedge it about added to the obscuration 
of its true nature, and increased the difficulty of 
getting at its real teaching. Thus it was that 
the open book still remained a closed treasure- 
house. 

But this could not go on forever. Given the 
aggressive and enlightening conditions of modern 
life, the misunderstanding of the Bible was 
bound to give way in time and its real char- 
acter to assert itself. This was accomplished 
along two main channels, these sometimes run- 
ning together in individuals who sympathized 



OF THE GOSPEL 95 

with both movements, and perhaps never clearly 
separable in any period, but yet always more or 
less distinct in genesis and genius. Both move- 
ments were due to the modern spirit, of which 
they were the religious expression, and to which, 
each in its own way, they always remained faith- 
ful. The one channel of Bible reopening was 
popular and practical, the other was literary and 
scientific. 

The popular reopening of the Bible. 

Gradually the Bible was translated into the 
more important languages of Europe, and found 
its way into the homes of the people. The inven- 
tion of the printing-press made this general circu- 
lation possible to a degree hitherto entirely beyond 
precedent or even belief. The Reformation theo- 
retically gave every man the right to read this 
book for himself when it thus came to his door, 
and the new spirit of individualism soon convert- 
ed the theoretical right into a practical privilege. 
So the Bible was everywhere welcomed and read. 
Its simple presentation of the gospel came upon 
the world like a new revelation direct from heaven. 
The masses of the people were not deeply inter- 
ested in theology ; they wanted daily inspira- 
tion and help. In the Bible they found it ; again 
"the common people heard him gladly." And 
among them it encountered the minimum of dog- 



96 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

matic theory to give it a false coloring. As 
Jesus turned away from learned, theology-har- 
dened Judea to the freer religious atmosphere 
and virgin soil of Galilee as offering a more prom- 
ising field of labor, so now again it was true that, 
when his message went forth in the language 
of the people, it was most quickly understood 
and most gladly received by those who were the 
farthest removed from the blinding influences 
of traditional theology. 

After two centuries of leavening operation in 
the quiet seclusion of the home the spirit of 
the Bible began to make itself felt, and led to 
great popular revivals of religion. It opened 
the eyes of Carey and his associates to the 
duty of the Christian to the heathen, and gave 
birth to the new foreign missionary movement 
that has set itself seriously to the task of 
the salvation of the unchristian world. It 
raised up the Wesleys to light the torch of 
New Testament religion in England. It caused 
the wave of revival that has swept over this 
country, in which Finney and Moody and 
scores of other evangelists have been preach- 
ing a practical New Testament gospel. It has 
passed into the regular pulpits of the land and 
given a new inspiration to every preacher of 
Christianity. More and more its power has 
extended to the educated elements of society 



OF THE GOSPEL 97 

and has added a spiritual tone to culture. By 
direct activity and indirect influence, the newly 
discovered spirit of New Testament religion is 
changing the whole aspect of the Christian 
world. 

Here is a profound and widespread popular 
recovery of the gospel, in its original spirit and 
practical purpose, due, not to dogmatic theology, 
but to two hundred years of the open Bible in 
the homes of the common people. The remnants 
of the ancient and mediaeval theology mixed up 
with the movement are a source of weakness, 
and have been a hindrance. The movement has 
no coherent theology of its own. It is like the 
Lutheran Reformation in this respect, only that 
it has gone farther in breaking away from Catho- 
lic dogmatics. It is a religious revival, and its 
theology is a patchwork ; many of its adherents 
do not know where the pieces came from, or 
why they are put together in one form rather 
than in another. It is a distinct return to the 
teachings of the New Testament, but these teach- 
ings are unconsciously woven together with the 
warp of post-biblical dogmatics. "The voice is 
Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of 
Esau": the gospel is the New Testament gospel, 
but the theology is that of an antiquated culture. 
Herein is brought to light the theological aspect 
that the Reformation has now assumed. 



98 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

The scientific reopening of the Bible. 

The theological implications of the nineteenth 
century Reformation become more apparent as 
we trace the second channel of Bible recovery. 
We turn from the popular world to the world 
of letters. 

As soon as the new world-view that came in 
with the beginning of the modern era had gained 
a firm hold, and the new culture had acquired 
assured results, there began a warfare between 
the new culture and the old. Sometimes this 
took the form of a feeling of irritation toward 
surviving ideas, without a clearly defined con- 
sciousness of what the trouble was. Sometimes 
there was open antagonism. From the middle 
of the eighteenth century the conflict has been 
going on as a semi-philosophical, semi-literary, 
semi-critical movement, which is inextricably 
mixed up with the theological problem. English 
deism, French rationalism, German enlighten- 
ment, romanticism, and idealism could not be 
ignored if an attempt were here made to trace 
modern theological thought. But none of these 
helped directly to place Christianity on its his- 
torical foundations. The old theological entan- 
glements still remained, either included in the 
movements themselves or tacitly attributed to 
the Christianity that they opposed. These, how- 
ever, all helped on the spread of the new cul- 



OF THE GOSPEL 99 

ture, and increased the growing alienation from 
Christianity on the part of educated people. 
The elements of ancient culture bound up in 
traditional theology came more and more to 
repel the man familiar with the new science and 
looking at the world in the new way. 

Different classes of cultured people were 
affected in different ways. 

There remained some, among them apparently 
the majority of professional theologians and reli- 
gious teachers, who were more influenced by the 
dogmatic environment than by the atmosphere 
of modern life. They still lived in the old world 
of theological notions, and the new culture had 
not made enough impression upon them to cause 
them to realize the presence of any gulf between 
the two. They saw no ; ' problem" peculiar to 
the new conditions, and stood confidently by 
traditional Christianity. 

Another class, more deeply influenced by 
modern education, and feeling the uncongeniali- 
ty of the ancient culture surviving in traditional 
theology, still realized so keenly the need and 
blessings of religion that they clung to Chris- 
tianity, and lulled to sleep their rational powers 
in the religious realm. There are yet many such 
among us, strong religious natures, who think 
acutely enough about other subjects, while in 
matters pertaining to religion they do not pre- 



L : 



ioo RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

tend to think. They hide behind the convenient 
plea of "mystery," without any suspicion that 
the mystery is often due, not to difficulties inher- 
ent in the gospel itself, but to the change in the 
world's thought which has made an obsolete 
extra-biblical theology unintelligible. 

These two classes constituted the "orthodox" 
of the day — those who stood by Christianity ac- 
cording to the traditional dogmatic statements ; 
not according to the New Testament, necessarily, 
for not this, but the creeds, whether written or 
unwritten, outside the New Testament or read 
into it, had been made the standard of ortho- 
doxy. 

Other people tried to hold Christianity intel- 
ligently as well as religiously, while still accept- 
ing modern thought, and found themselves 
between two fires. They gained only mental tur- 
moil, alternating hope and despair, being one day 
full of intellectual doubt, the next giving play to 
the religious feelings ; having just enough light 
to see the darkness, but not to dispel it — of all 
men most miserable. 

Still others, in whom the literary and scien- 
tific element predominated over the religious, 
accepted the necessities of modern thought, and 
gave up Christianity; sometimes carelessly, 
sometimes, where the religious nature was 
deeper, in hopeless sadness and pathetic despair. 



OF THE GOSPEL 101 

None of these four classes saw where the real 
difficulty lay. Orthodox and infidel alike re- 
garded Christianity as being in truth the tradi- 
tional thing which passed under that name in his 
own age. In this Voltaire and his orthodox an- 
tagonists were agreed. The old heresy was bear- 
ing fruit : Origen's theology was having an unex- 
pected effect. 

Still another class, represented by German 
idealism, culminating in Hegel, sought to escape 
by filling the old doctrines with a new meaning, 
and building up an elaborate speculative philoso- 
phy which should reconcile faith and reason; 
philosophy was religion intelligently thought 
out — the old Greek conception again. 

Another school of thinkers, with philosophi- 
cal sympathies akin to Kant, represented most 
prominently by Schleiermacher, and including 
the intuitionalists and romanticists, went to the 
other extreme, and declared that religion had 
nothing to do with science and philosophy, and was 
in no way dependent upon contemporary culture 
in any age, but belonged exclusively to the realm 
of feeling : ''religion is the feeling of dependence." 

Thus there was warfare in the world of 
thought, there was ferment everywhere, and still 
it was not perceived that the cause was a new 
world-view contending against the ancient culture 
surviving in Christian dogmatics. 



ioz RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

It was under such conditions as these that, in 
the fourth decade of the last century, Chris- 
tianity was rudely brought back to its historical 
foundations by the appearance of Strauss's Life 
of Jesus, Baur's work on the pastoral epistles, and 
Vatke's history of the religion of the Old Testa- 
ment. They burst like a bomb upon all camps 
of religious thought, and marked a new epoch 
for Christianity. 

As with all apparently sudden movements, 
however, this one also was not so abrupt as ap- 
peared upon the surface. Duringthe previous cen- 
tury Semler, Lessing, and Herder had enunciated 
the principle that the books of the Bible should 
be read and criticised as human productions ; and 
from that time on the idea was never lost, but 
kept gaining ground. The transcendent impor- 
tance of Strauss and Baur lay in the fact that 
they were the first to apply this idea systemati- 
cally in an actual attempt to understand the his- 
torical life of Jesus and the historical conditions 
giving rise to the epistles. This significance 
which they had is entirely independent of the 
conclusions that they reached. Those conclu- 
sions are now almost universally rejected, but 
the idea and method of biblical investigation 
then introduced mark the beginning, and form 
the basis, of the modern science of biblical exe- 
gesis. 



OF THE GOSPEL 103 

The new study of the Bible differs from the 
old in important particulars, and possesses char- 
acteristics peculiarly its own. 

A new temper animates it. This point hardly 
needs to be discussed further. The same spirit 
that had turned from theories about nature to 
a study of nature herself here turns from no- 
tions about the Bible to the Bible itself. It 
attempts to lay aside preconceived ideas and 
dogmatic prejudices in an earnest and honest 
attempt to discover what it is that the Bible 
really means to say. Thus it inaugurated a bib- 
lical exegesis carried on solely in the interests of 
truth, and not for theological considerations ; at 
least this is true in theory. 

A different method also characterizes the 
new exegesis. The same scientific method that 
had gained an assured place and achieved such 
fruitful results in the study of nature is here 
applied to the study of the Bible. The alle- 
gorical interpretation that had been employed 
by Origen and the early church in general had 
continued to influence the study of the Bible 
up to the last century. It rendered any cer- 
tain knowledge of Scripture teaching impos- 
sible. A Jewish rabbi once said that a lofty 
peculiarity of the Word of God was that it 
could have from five to nine different meanings, 
while the word of man, such was its poverty, 



104 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

could have but one. As long as such a concep- 
tion, or even the idea of a double meaning, viti- 
ated exegesis, it is evident that there could be 
no fixed body of Bible knowledge. The choice 
between the five to nine meanings was deter- 
mined by a man's dogmatic predilections. The 
new method does away with this persistent error. 
It starts out with the idea that the books of the 
Bible were produced under definite historical 
conditions, and were addressed to definite indi- 
viduals and communities, with a definite mean- 
ing and for a specific purpose, generally without 
any reference whatever to a more remote future. 
God's message in the Bible to the future age 
depends upon the nature of the message to a 
given present, rather than upon the peculiarity 
of its transmission, the miraculousness of its pre- 
vision, or the multitudinousness of its meanings; 
and the way to learn the meaning of that message 
is first to find out definitely what the author 
meant to say to his contemporaries, and therein 
discover the universal gospel which the divine 
Author has given to all generations. 

The new exegesis thus takes a different atti- 
tude toward the Bible. The old view had no 
sense of movement or particularity. The Bible 
was all on one level plane, as if complete inspira- 
tion meant absolute uniformity. Everything 
was of universal application unless it was proved 



OF THE GOSPEL 105 

to be particular and local. Paul's letters, for 
instance, were regarded as general treatises for 
all Christians of all times, in their form of state- 
ment as well as in their underlying principles. 
This accounts for the discussions that have taken 
place about such an injunction as, " Let the 
women keep silence in the churches." It ac- 
counts also for the fact that theology has re- 
tained so much of Paul's Hebrew cast of thought. 
The new science breaks up this forced univer- 
sality of application, and sees in the epistles 
local and particular injunctions, written to meet 
concrete needs. The presumption is that such 
is the case with any given passage in the Bible 
unless it can be shown to be of permanent validi- 
ty, either in its existing form of statement or 
in the underlying principle. While the old exe- 
gesis, at least that of post-Reformation Protes- 
tantism, regarded the Bible as an infallible statute 
book, the new study, with its reconstruction of 
historical conditions, has discovered that it is a 
book of life rather than of law, a book of re- 
ligion rather than of dogmatics, the constitution 
of the church rather than its specific legislation. 
It is the record of God's dealings with men for 
their salvation, and so we get back of the book 
to the living God behind it. In a word, the old 
exegesis was characteristically dogmatic, the new 
is characteristically historical and scientific. 



io6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

This way of looking at the Bible does not at 
all deny the reality of its divine inspiration or 
the permanent value of its teaching, but makes 
it a book that is intended to be understood, 
instead of a collection of mysteries whose mean- 
ing is to be guessed at — understood, at least, so 
far as its profound truths may be grasped by 
human thought. The arbitrary hindrances to its 
understanding are removed. 

The method of this scientific exegesis is be- 
yond question, and is itself the most valuable 
result achieved, because it makes possible a pro- 
gressingly definite knowledge of what the Bible 
teaches. The specific results hitherto worked out 
by the new method are not all fully established, 
and in some cases may be superseded, as have been 
the conclusions of Strauss and Baur. Yet not 
all of them. Sixty years of scientific work 
in this field have yielded unprecedentedly rich 
returns in assured Bible knowledge. It is worth 
noting, parenthetically, that one proof of this 
is the greater unity of the various evangelical 
denominations of Protestantism. They all pro- 
fess to take their stand upon the Bible. As 
they have ceased to guess at its meaning and 
warp its teaching by dogmatic prejudices, and 
have honestly tried to find out what it says, the 
denominations that are loyal to the Bible have 
of necessity approached each other. Herein also 



OF THE GOSPEL 107 

lies the hope and the prophecy of the coming 
union of Protestantism. 

The general result of this literary and scien- 
tific reopening of the Bible has been a decided 
movement from traditional Christianity back to 
New Testament Christianity. It has therefore 
led to a striking recovery of the gospel. Go- 
ing back of the long theological development 
to the perennial source of Christianity, we have 
found ourselves again in the religious atmosphere 
of the first century, and have felt again the 
mighty power of the giant young gospel moving 
out in sublime confidence against the world. We 
have lived once more in days when Christian 
thought was a part of Christian life and led it on. 
We have felt ourselves to be in the midst of re- 
ligious realities instead of theological systems, 
and have rejoiced with the joy of the early Chris- 
tians in a gospel that is the power of God unto 
salvation for everyone that believeth. Perhaps 
more than we realize, this clear vision of the New 
Testament gospel has influenced all channels of 
present-day thought and life. 

In this general movement back to New Testa- 
ment Christianity one of the most noteworthy 
results has been the recovery of the historical 
Jesus and the consequent transfer of emphasis 
from the creeds to the Christ. The New Testa- 
ment has been found to be full of Christ — his 



108 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

powerful and persuasive personality, his wonder- 
ful redeeming love for men, his welcome disclo- 
sure of the Father's heart, his cheering presenta- 
tion of a new life and the way to gain it ; but no 
theological system explaining all this. The re- 
sult was inevitable. The modern spirit, weary of 
metaphysical theories in religion, suspicious of a 
theology that was intertwined with scientific and 
philosophic conceptions which had already be- 
come effete, turned with joyous relief from 
mediaeval Catholic dogmatics back to the historic 
life of the Man of Galilee. This person has not 
been philosophically defined to a full extent ; in- 
deed, there is not a consuming desire to define 
him. To know and love him is felt to be better. 
Men have turned from theories about him to the 
blessed reality of his presence and his power, and 
are content. 1 

The recovery of the gospel just described dif- 
fers from the popular recovery referred to above 
in that this movement, having come through the 
channel of literary and scientific thought and 
criticism, is more conscious of what it is about, 
more scientific in its method, more intelligent in 
its conclusions, and more keenly sensible of the 
consequences involved. 

For this reason the theological implications of 
the nineteenth century Reformation are more 

1 See Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxvi. 



OF THE GOSPEL 109 

clearly apparent here than in the popular move- 
ment. Starting with a scientific study of the 
Christian sources, without any reference to dog- 
matic considerations, conclusions have been 
reached that have turned indifference to tradi- 
tional dogmatics into antagonism. This has been 
due to the twofold reason that, on the one hand, 
the farther the new study of the Bible has pro- 
ceeded, the more evident it has become that the 
traditional theological system not only is not 
found there, but actually does violence to the 
New Testament gospel ; while, on the other hand, 
from the study of church history, the rise of this 
system, and the extra-biblical sources from which 
it largely drew its material, together with its 
varied fortune in the world, have been discov- 
ered in post-apostolic times. Among educated 
people who have gone to the New Testament for 
an acquaintance with Christianity at first hand, 
and who have acquired some accurate knowledge 
of what is there taught, there has consequently 
been a growing dissatisfaction with the tradi- 
tional theological system that seems to them not 
to do justice at the present day to this New Tes- 
tament gospel. Therefore, while the work of 
gospel recovery is destined to proceed still farther 
as the scientific study of the Bible continues, yet 
along with this activity the religious movement 
has now assumed a new phase — the theological. 



no RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

In the open Bible the two streams of gospel 
recovery run into the same channel. But they 
cannot be said to blend. The one is still popular 
in character, intolerant of scientific difficulties, car- 
ing only for immediate practical issues, unfa- 
miliar with the tortuous course of dogmatics in 
history, ready to put up with a heterogeneous the- 
ology that adopts here an element from the Bible, 
there one from Origen or Augustine, now another 
from Luther or Calvin, and then another from the 
post-Reformation systems, with yet another from 
the loose current notions of the day, still uncon- 
sciously reading the whole thing back into the 
Bible and bringing it forth again triumphantly as 
divine truth. There is no historical sense, no 
scientific exegesis. The gospel is still vitiated 
by being confused with its later theological ex- 
pression. Hence, while many evangelistic work- 
ers preach Christianity with almost apostolic 
power, their theology shocks good taste and 
modern culture. They think the fault is with 
the taste and culture that have lost the relish for 
gospel truth. But it is not so. Gospel truth 
was never more welcome, and the effort to live 
it never stronger. The trouble is with this obso- 
lete culture which they are presenting as an essen- 
tial part of the gospel. 

The other movement is still scientific and 
thoughtful, inclined to be contemptuous of the 



OF THE GOSPEL m 

popular confidence and enthusiasm, somewhat 
cold and lacking in evangelistic fervor, perhaps 
putting over-emphasis upon what it is possible for 
knowledge to do in religion, yet trying to be loy- 
al to its scientific ideals and to keep reverent and 
sweet-spirited in the face of misunderstanding 
and abuse. It sees more clearly the seat of the 
difficulty, and feels more keenly the injustice of 
trying to force upon the modern world the ancient 
culture as a part of the religion of Jesus. It 
realizes more fully, and often more sadly, the 
inherent difficulty of interpreting religion to 
thought, but yet must have a thoughtful religion 
if it is to render whole-hearted allegiance. 

The time has therefore come when we face 
the theological problem of the New Reformation. 
Will this rediscovered gospel be permitted to 
express itself in a systematic theology congruous 
with our modern culture, or will it again, as after 
the Lutheran Reformation, be forced back into 
the old wine-skin of ancient knowledge ? If the 
latter, there is no alternative but for history to 
repeat itself — another period of ferment by the 
gospel in its hiding place, followed by a new 
bursting of its bonds some time in the future. 
If, on the other hand, the gospel can now express 
itself in a new and fitting dogmatic system, it 
will be free to enter upon a permanent conquest 
of the modern world — a conquest of its intelli- 



ii2 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

gence and determined energy, as well as of its 
feeling and impulsive activity. The movement 
for the recovery of the gospel is passing, if 
indeed it has not already passed, into a move- 
ment for its restatement. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE RECOVERED GOSPEL OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT. 

It has been assumed in the foregoing pages 
that the gospel of Jesus was originally of a cer- 
tain character ; that it was a pistis rather than a 
gnosis, and so had to do most properly with 
man's religious nature. In a former chapter it 
has been shown what Christianity became within 
three centuries after the apostolic age. The 
ecclesiastical transformation therein described is 
all but universally admitted. The theological 
condition of things in the fourth century is now 
also too apparent to be longer disputed; Chris- 
tianity had become a gnosis. It remains only to 
ascertain whether it was such also in the begin- 
ning, or whether the assumption that at first it 
was a. pistis is well founded. 

I. ATTITUDE OF MODERN EXEGESIS TOWARD THE 
NEW TESTAMENT LITERATURE. 

By common consent the nature of primitive 
Christianity is to be determined from the New 
Testament, which, whatever else it may be, is 
conceded by all parties to be, at least in the 
main, the literature of the first age of Christianity. 

113 



ii4 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

In turning now to the New Testament to 
answer the question, What was the original gos- 
pel? we today occupy a double vantage ground 
never before enjoyed. In the first place, the 
new study of church history, and the movement 
leading to the recovery of the Bible, as traced in 
the last chapter, bring us to the New Testament 
in a more intelligent and open-minded spirit, and 
equipped with a better exegetical method, than 
have characterized any other age. 

In the second place, due to the new historical 
perspective in Bible study, we turn now, not 
primarily to the epistles of Paul, as has generally 
been done in the past, but to the New Testament 
records of the life and teachings of Jesus ; and then 
to the other Bible writings as throwing new light 
upon these. Here we stand upon practically new 
ground, never before occupied since the New 
Testament canon was formed. By the time that 
was accomplished Christianity had already started 
on its theological course, and gave precedence to 
those parts of the Bible that were most easily 
assimilated to its uses. Hence the Greek theo- 
logians turned to the writings of John and the 
philosophical aspects of Paul's writings, while the 
Roman theologians found special delight in 
Paul's legal terminology. At the time of the 
Lutheran Reformation, also, it is significant that 
the return was rather to Paul's writings than to 



OF THE GOSPEL 1 1 5 

the gospel narratives. Luther, instead of taking 
Jesus' idea of the forgiveness of sins as his 
dominating thought, made Paul's "justification by 
faith" the center of his system. Calvin, instead 
of putting new emphasis upon Jesus' conception of 
the fatherhood of God, adopted as the center of 
his system the absolute sovereignty of God, an 
idea traceable back through Augustine to Paul. 
From the Reformation this same tendency passed 
over into all the great Protestant systems of the- 
ology. The writings of Paul, rather than the 
teachings of Jesus, have dominated dogmatics 
all the way of its course. This in turn was justi- 
fied by a theory of inspiration which regarded the 
apostles as the infallible mouthpieces of the risen 
Christ, and so made their utterances his. 

A clearer understanding of New Testament 
times, and a more careful reading of the New 
Testament itself, show that this position is not 
tenable, and indeed is unscriptural. It places the 
apostles on the same footing as Christ, ascribing 
to them the same universality of comprehension 
and expression. No one who has entered at all 
deeply into the thought of the apostolic writers 
will deny for a moment their divine inspiration. 
But they are not as Christ. They have the same 
spirit, but not without measure. They were still 
human, with human limitations and prejudices. 
Christ spoke as knowing what was in man, and as 



n6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

possessing immediate knowledge of the Father's 
heart. The apostles, according to their own con- 
fession, saw through a glass darkly. Jesus 
somehow spoke a universal religious language, 
not only to his own age, but to all generations. 
He did not argue, nor attempt to express his 
thought in terms of traditional Jewish theol- 
ogy; he lived the truth in his own divine life, 
and succeeded as none other ever has in speaking 
as soul to soul with man. With the apostles it was 
different. Their mission was to their own gen- 
eration, and to us only as first to it. It was their 
avowed purpose to bring the gospel to bear upon 
the conditions immediately before them. They 
had no gospel of their own, but themselves took 
the gospel of Jesus, and by means of argument 
and illustration, drawn from current conceptions 
and conditions, sought to press it upon their con- 
temporaries. That is, the apostles were the first 
theologians and preachers of the church, and are 
the inspired examples for all future workers in 
the same field. Doing as they did, we also refuse 
to stop with them, but press back to the same 
gospel of Jesus to which they gave allegiance. 

For this reason the following exposition will 
be confined chiefly to the gospel narratives. This 
much, however, should be said : anyone who really 
works his way into apostolic thought becomes 
more and more convinced that the apostles 



OF THE GOSPEL 117 

preached no new gospel, but grasped in all of its 
essential features the teaching of Him whom they 
served. The thing to be remembered is that their 
expression of this gospel does not partake of the 
same universal and permanent character as the 
gospel itself, for it was cast in the form it now has 
in order to meet special conditions. If this is 
borne in mind, the expression "the gospel of the 
New Testament" may be substituted for "the 
gospel of Jesus" throughout this discussion with- 
out change of meaning; it being understood that 
no attempt is here made to prove the essential 
identity of the two. 

It is not necessary in this place to enter into 
a critical estimate of the four gospel narratives. 
It is assumed that the first three give a true im- 
pression of Jesus, together with a trustworthy ac- 
count of what he did and taught. It is also taken 
for granted that the fourth gospel, even though it 
may color the thought of Jesus by the reflection 
of the author, is still true to the spirit and sub- 
stance of the Master's teaching. These assump- 
tions, to say the least, are not in contradiction to 
the most assured conclusions of the critical inves- 
tigation of the subject. 

II. THE GOSPEL OF JESUS. 

No pretensions are made in the following 
pages to a scientific exposition of the gospel, 
but only to an indication of such of its charac- 



n8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

teristic features as bear upon the question of the 
original character of Christianity. 

The fundamental idea of the gospel of Jesus 
is that of salvation. It cannot be better expressed 
than in the classical passage: " God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but 
have eternal life." 

Jesus of Nazareth the mediator of salvation. 

Before his birth, Jesus was given a name 
which indicated the fact that he should save his 
people from their sins. At his nativity the angels 
announced the good tidings that a Savior was 
born. The aged saints waiting in the temple 
welcomed him as the Redeemer of Israel. These 
things, however, would not determine anything, 
if he himself had not made salvation his great 
task. This he did, both by word and by deed. 
"The whole need not a physician,' ' said Jesus, 
"but the sick. I came not to call the righteous, 
but sinners, to repentance." He called himself 
the good shepherd, who watched over the sheep 
and protected them with his life. " I, if I be 
lifted up," he said, "will draw all men unto me." 
" God sent not his Son into the world to con- 
demn the world, but that the world through him 
might be saved." " I am come," he said again, 
"that they might have life, and that they might 



OF THE GOSPEL 119 

have it more abundantly." Then there is that 
great utterance, spoken when he was trying to 
impress upon his disciples the inherent nobility 
of service: "The Son of man came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his 
life a ransom for many." And the solemn words 
at the Last Supper : " This is my body ; this is my 
blood which is shed for many." 

These were not idle words. His life proved 
their sincerity. He vindicated his claim to be 
the great Physician by healing the diseases of 
men, living with sinners, loving and helping 
them, even until it became a great scandal among 
the Pharisees. He identified himself so fully 
with men in their sufferings that the evangelist 
saw in his life the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy: 
" Himself took our infirmities and bare our sick- 
nesses." But all other proof of Jesus' claim to 
be the Savior of men is overshadowed by the 
convincing proof of the cross. Here he sealed 
his professions by actual death in behalf of man- 
kind. The world's sickness and sorrow and sin, 
which he bore through life, he bore unto the 
utmost limit in his death. 

While this central fact in the life of Jesus can- 
not be permitted to be buried under man-made 
theories of the atonement, yet it is also true that 
the gospel fact cannot be limited to what the eye 
can see. As Jesus hung upon the cross, all that 



n8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

teristic features as bear upon the question of the 
original character of Christianity. 

The fundamental idea of the gospel of Jesus 
is that of salvation. It cannot be better expressed 
than in the classical passage: " God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but 
have eternal life." 

Jesus of Nazareth the mediator of salvation. 

Before his birth, Jesus was given a name 
which indicated the fact that he should save his 
people from their sins. At his nativity the angels 
announced the good tidings that a Savior was 
born. The aged saints waiting in the temple 
welcomed him as the Redeemer of Israel. These 
things, however, would not determine anything, 
if he himself had not made salvation his great 
task. This he did, both by word and by deed. 
"The whole need not a physician," said Jesus, 
"but the sick. I came not to call the righteous, 
but sinners, to repentance." He called himself 
the good shepherd, who watched over the sheep 
and protected them with his life. "I, if I be 
lifted up," he said, "will draw all men unto me." 
" God sent not his Son into the world to con- 
demn the world, but that the world through him 
might be saved." " I am come," he said again, 
"that they might have life, and that they might 



OF THE GOSPEL 119 

have it more abundantly." Then there is that 
great utterance, spoken when he was trying to 
impress upon his disciples the inherent nobility 
of service: "The Son of man came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his 
life a ransom for many." And the solemn words 
at the Last Supper : " This is my body ; this is my 
blood which is shed for many." 

These were not idle words. His life proved 
their sincerity. He vindicated his claim to be 
the great Physician by healing the diseases of 
men, living with sinners, loving and helping 
them, even until it became a great scandal among 
the Pharisees. He identified himself so fully 
with men in their sufferings that the evangelist 
saw in his life the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy: 
" Himself took our infirmities and bare our sick- 
nesses." But all other proof of Jesus' claim to 
be the Savior of men is overshadowed by the 
convincing proof of the cross. Here he sealed 
his professions by actual death in behalf of man- 
kind. The world's sickness and sorrow and sin, 
which he bore through life, he bore unto the 
utmost limit in his death. 

While this central fact in the life of Jesus can- 
not be permitted to be buried under man-made 
theories of the atonement, yet it is also true that 
the gospel fact cannot be limited to what the eye 
can see. As Jesus hung upon the cross, all that 



izo RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

could be seen was a man dying between two 
other men. Fact means more than this. Who 
it was dying, and how he came to be dying, are 
a part of the fact. It cannot be denied that fact 
and theory here come so close together that the 
one easily passes into the other. The safest 
thing to do is to include in the permanent gospel 
fact of the person of Christ what he himself 
included. 

Even in the synoptic gospels Jesus represents 
himself as bearing a unique relation to God. 
God is pre-eminently his Father. He will con- 
fess men before his Father, who has delivered 
all things unto him and given him all au- 
thority in heaven and earth. " No one knoweth 
the Son save the Father, neither doth any 
know the Father save the Son, and he to whom- 
soever the Son willeth to reveal him." The 
Father has committed the judgment of the world 
unto the Son, who will come in his glory to 
accomplish it. Jesus knows himself to be the 
Christ, the chosen and anointed agent of the 
Father for setting up the kingdom of God among 
men. 

When we turn to the fourth gospel, this is 
made more distinct. The consciousness of his 
intimate union with the Father is so strong that 
it colors all his life. He everywhere refers to 
"my Father" as the one whose messenger he is. 



OF THE GOSPEL 121 

He speaks not on his own authority, he does not 
his own works, he carries not out his own will; 
but he is sent of the Father, does his will and 
works, speaks the things he has seen and heard 
of him. He was with the Father in his glory 
before he came to earth, and goes again to 
be with him. He that hath seen the Son hath 
seen the Father. Indeed, he and the Father 
are one. 

It is this unique relationship to the Father 
that g'wes character and value to the work of 
Jesus. Knowing God by immediate union, he 
could make him known as the Father of men. 
Having personally experienced the Father's in- 
finite love, he could express it to the world 
in his own person. Understanding God's deadly 
antagonism to sin, he could teach men its real 
nature by resisting it even unto death, and 
causing it there to reveal its incarnate essence. 
The gospel records leave no doubt of the fact 
that Jesus regarded himself as the self-revelation 
of God. John gives the thought in his prologue 
by saying that he was the Word of God incar- 
nate — God's expression of himself in humanity. 
Jesus claims to have for men the religious value 
of God. It is through him that we have our 
most treasured knowledge of God and come into 
communion with him. This claim of Jesus is pre- 
sented everywhere throughout the New Testa- 



122 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

ment; and, it may be added, is abundantly veri- 
fied in human experience. This relationship to 
God is the gospel fact concerning the person of 
Jesus that makes the salvation which he brings 
to men a real salvation. 

God the Heavenly Father the Author of salvation. 

The gospel presents a new idea of God. He 
is not only a God of holiness and justice, but 
also of boundless love; not a God who loves Jews 
alone, nor the good alone, but whose love is 
all-inclusive, as extensive as humanity itself. 
Whether or not Jesus taught that God is the 
Father of all men, he certainly taught that he 
has a Father's love and care for all. It was God's 
love that led to Christ's mission of salvation : 
"God so loved the world that he gave his Son." 
As Paul puts it : " God commendeth his love 
toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, 
Christ died for us." God is forever working to 
reclaim the lost world ; his love streams out con- 
stantly as the warm rays of the sun. He showers 
blessings upon the just and the unjust, that he 
may do them good. His thought for men is good 
and only good ; if there is any failure to receive 
eternal blessedness, it will be through man's sin, 
not by God's wish. With Jesus the cross is thus 
the manifestation of the Father's deathless love, 
rather than the satisfaction of the justice of a 



OF THE GOSPEL 123 

wrathful God. This may not be Calvinism, but 
it is the message of Jesus nevertheless. 

The nature and conditions of salvation. 

This salvation, of which God is the author and 
Jesus the mediator, is presented in a somewhat 
different aspect in the synoptic gospels from that 
in the fourth gospel ; the former representing it as 
the kingdom of God, and the latter as eternal 
life. A closer examination, however, shows this 
to be a formal rather than a material difference. 

I. Salvation as the kingdom of God. The 
idea of the kingdom of God was not a new one. 
Israel theoretically constituted such a kingdom, 
both during the theocracy, when God was re- 
garded as the nation's ruler, and during the mon- 
archy, when the king was God's earthly vice- 
gerent. The Jews of later ages looked back 
longingly to the kingdom of David as the ideal 
condition to be reproduced under the coming 
Messianic reign. Jesus adopted this national 
hope of the kingdom, and made it the central 
thought of his preaching. He began with the 
proclamation : " Repent, for the kingdom of God 
is at hand." He went throughout the cities and 
villages preaching the kingdom of God during 
his entire ministry. He directed his disciples to 
preach the same theme. And during the forty 
days after his resurrection " he was speaking the 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God." 



124 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

But while Jesus chose this national hope as 
the form into which he cast his message, he filled 
it with new meaning and wholly changed its char- 
acter. It is not necessary to discuss here the 
Jewish expectations concerning the kingdom. 
Their essentially materialistic character in the 
times of Christ is well known. On the other hand, 
he gave to the idea a clearly marked spiritual mean- 
ing. When the Pharisees came asking him when 
the kingdom of God should appear, he answered, 
" The kingdom of God cometh not with observa- 
tion ; neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! 
for behold the kingdom of God is within you," 
or " in the midst of you." The kingdom, that is, 
is a spiritual kingdom, not coming with worldly 
pomp and force, but already present in unseen 
spiritual power. It is the sovereign rule of God 
in the lives of men, both as individuals and as 
related to each other. 

All those who enter into the kingdom, there- 
fore, must turn from their old life and be of a new 
spiritual temper. " Repent, and believe the gos- 
pel," says Jesus. " Except ye turn and become 
as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the 
kingdom of heaven." " Blessed are the meek, for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 

As men enter the kingdom by the exercise 
of repentance and faith, God meets them with the 
forgiveness of their sins, dispelling their fear of 



OF THE GOSPEL 125 

him, and drawing them into personal fellowship 
with himself. This salvation into the kingdom 
thus involves a new life of communion with God. 
It is a life of trust, in which men cease to trouble 
themselves overmuch with anxiety about food 
and raiment and the evils of the morrow, but strive 
to do their Father's will first of all, and leave 
themselves in his care. The sovereignty in the 
kingdom is a "paternal sovereignty," in which 
the king is a loving Father, looking after the 
best interests of each child. 

While God is supreme in the kingdom, as lov- 
ing, forgiving, and sustaining Father, he makes 
his will known through Christ, the Savior, Mas- 
ter, and Friend, to whom immediate allegiance is 
due. Every man who enters is to deny himself 
and take up his cross and follow Jesus. This is 
not a mechanical matter. Jesus has adopted as 
his own the law of the kingdom, and fulfilled it 
in his own life, even unto crucifixion. Everyone 
who would enter must adopt the same law and 
fulfil it in the same way. The law of the king- 
dom is love — not love along with other laws, but 
love as the all-inclusive principle of life which 
fulfils all other laws. " Whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them : for this is the law and the prophets." And 
at the end of the ministry it was the same as at 
the beginning. In those last days at Jerusalem 



iz6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

Jesus answered the lawyer : u Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great 
and first commandment. And a second like unto 
it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self. On these two commandments hangeth the 
whole law and the prophets." Nor is this law of 
love to govern the subject's relations with his 
friends alone. He is to love his enemies, bless 
those that curse him, do good to those that hate 
him, and pray for those that despitefully use him 
and persecute him. Toward friend and enemy 
alike the spirit of kindliness is to rule. 

This love, moreover, is not to remain an unex- 
pressed benevolent impulse, but is to take form 
in word and deed. The cup of cold water is to 
be given, the naked clothed, the sick and unfor- 
tunate visited, the sorrowing comforted. "Who- 
soever shall lose his life for my sake and the 
gospel's, shall find it." Paul sums it up in the 
spirit of the Master when he says : " Bear ye 
one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of 
Christ." 

Salvation in the kingdom necessitates the 
overcoming of sin and the living of lives of purity 
and holiness. The law of love necessarily must 
overcome the law of selfishness, which Jesus 
everywhere presents as the essence of sin. The 
greatest sin is lack of love. Hence as men come 



OF THE GOSPEL 127 

more and more under the dominion of the law of 
the kingdom they must grow in holiness. " Be ye 
perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," is 
the divine ideal ever leading the king's subjects 
on to holier living. Sin has no place in the king- 
dom. If it enters it is an element of discord and 
must be thrust out. Nor is holiness mere passive 
or negative goodness, but active and energetic 
righteousness. This is one of the remarkable 
things about Jesus' idea of goodness. It is the 
very opposite of stoicism and asceticism. It in- 
vites men to enter into life's activities and con- 
quer evil by overcoming it with good. Sin is 
not the doing of evil so much as the failure to 
do the good. Virtue is not the absence of the 
wrong so much as the existence and activity of 
positive goodness. In the kingdom of God sin 
is to give place to this kind of holiness. 

The new life in the kingdom of God begins 
here in this world; that is, the kingdom of God 
is a present kingdom. It already "is among 
you." In the days of Jesus the kingdom was es- 
tablished in the world, when through him God 
began to exercise his sovereign rule over in- 
dividual hearts. But this was not all of the 
kingdom. It was to extend its sway both indi- 
vidually and socially. Like the leaven, the new 
law of the kingdom was to permeate more and 
more the life of the individual who had felt its 



iz8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

power, until he came completely under its con- 
trol, and sin gave place to holiness as selfish- 
ness gave way before the new divine altruism. 
This may not be fully accomplished in the earth- 
ly life ; indeed, it probably will not be. And so 
there is in store for the individual subject of the 
kingdom a glorious consummation in the future, 
wherein his longings and strivings shall be real- 
ized. Some time, somewhere, they that hunger 
and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. 

But the thought of Jesus seems also to antici- 
pate the leavening extension of the kingdom's 
law into the social life of the world. Beginning 
with individual subjects, and always preserving 
the individual dignity and the individual relation- 
ship between Son and Father, the kingdom also 
includes the relation of individuals to each other, 
and the penetration of the divine sovereignty into 
their collective life. It therefore involves a new 
society, whose laws are fair deductions of the 
great law of the kingdom, and whose institutions 
are just expressions of its spirit. Jesus did not 
say much about how this should be accomplished. 
There are the two parables of the leaven and the 
mustard seed which directly teach it. But more 
than that, it seems to be involved in all his teach- 
ing concerning the relation of the subjects of the 
kingdom to God and to each other. Supreme 
love to God, and a love to others equal to love 



OF THE GOSPEL 129 

for self, necessarily must in time find expression 
in congenial social institutions. It can hardly be 
doubted that Jesus looked forward to the course 
of history as the scene of this conflict between 
the old world-kingdom and the new divine king- 
dom which he had established ; a conflict in which 
his kingdom should be progressively victorious 
until its final glorious consummation, represented 
by his return in the glory of the Father to an un- 
disputed reign. 

2. Salvation as eternal life. Turning from the 
synoptics to the fourth gospel, we do not find 
a different message, but an entirely new form 
of expression. Whether this is due to John's 
own reflection and personal coloring, or whether 
Jesus used both forms, the synoptists mainly 
following one and John the other, is a matter 
of conjecture. However that may be, it is sur- 
prising how impossible one finds it to express 
the teachings of John's gospel under the catego- 
ries derived from an analysis of the first three 
gospels. A wholly different terminology has to 
be used. But it is even more surprising how 
little real change is found in the gospel mes- 
sage presented in these two forms. The shell 
seems to fall away in both cases and leave the 
same kernel of divine truth manifest in clearest 
light. 

The gospel of salvation which the synoptists 



i 3 o RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

present under the form of the kingdom of God 
John presents as eternal life. 

That which the synoptists hint at is here clear- 
ly expressed — that man must undergo a spiritual 
birth and emerge into spiritual life if he would 
see God. God is spirit, and they that worship 
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 
This spiritual birth is conditioned by the same 
requirements that the synoptists give for entrance 
into the kingdom, and this is doubtless one cause 
of the similarity of thought between the two. 
These conditions are repentance (a turning from 
sin) and faith in Christ (loving confidence and 
trust in him, together with the will to obey him). 
Upon the fulfilment of these conditions the 
Father forgives men their sins, gives them power 
to become sons of God, and grants to them eter- 
nal life. 

Here is brought out more clearly, also, what 
it is that man is saved from : sin and death and 
the wrath of God. This does not need to be en- 
larged upon, as the same teaching is found in the 
synoptists. But naturally an emphasis of the gos- 
pel as life and light brings out more clearly the 
shadows of death. 

We likewise see with greater distinctness what 
it is that man is saved unto : a life of light and of 
blessed union and fellowship with God. " I will 
not leave you comfortless," says Jesus, "I will 



OF THE GOSPEL 131 

come to you." "If a man love me, he will keep 
my words : and my Father will love him, and we 
will come unto him, and make our abode with 
him." "Abide in me, and I in you." "He that 
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall 
have the light of life." Life and light are the 
great gifts of God to those who fulfil the condi- 
tions of their bestowal through Jesus Christ. 

This new divine life must be sustained by 
continued loyal fellowship with Christ, who is 
the bread of life ; a communion whose continuance 
is rendered possible after his departure by his 
return in the Spirit to dwell within his people as 
comforter, strengthener, and guide. 

A man thus born of the Spirit, and living 
in the Spirit, has eternal life. He has it now : 
"He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life." 
There is not so much said about the present and 
future in John's gospel. They seem to disappear 
as Christ leads us out into the eternal verities 
where time is not. The man who through faith 
in Christ is brought into a permanent relation to 
God in the realm of spiritual life comes into an 
environment where the conditions of eternal life 
are already present. He is in vital touch with those 
mighty spiritual forces which are as strong and 
enduring as God himself. He is taken up by God 
into his own life, without losing his own individu- 
ality ; rather he there first finds it completely. 



1 32 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

John does not show, as the synoptists do, how 
this life is to come into organic relations with 
the world, and constitute a kingdom, but deals 
with it in its inner, spiritual, eternal conditions. 
The atmosphere is more distinctively religious as 
contrasted with moral. He gives the spirit and 
essence of religion as taught by Christ, without 
attempting to give it a local habitation and a 
name. But it is the same gospel of salvation, 
here brought out with startling clearness and 
beauty. 

III. CONCLUSIONS. 

It now remains to consider the bearing of this 
New Testament idea of Christianity upon the 
question of the obscuration of the gospel, with 
which we have been concerned. Was the later 
dogmatic development the legitimate unfolding 
of this gospel, or a transformation of it? 

i. The New Testament narratives set forth 
the gospel under the two aspects of the kingdom 
of God and eternal life. From this fact several 
things are obvious. In the first place, the gospel 
message is thus better understood. Language is 
a means to an end. The end sought is the con- 
veyance of truth. But language is an inadequate 
means of communication, and hence a truth 
presented in only one form is subject to more 
misconception than when expressed in several 
ways. Without question the dual form in which 



OF THE GOSPEL 133 

the gospel has come down to us makes its mean- 
ing clearer. 

Again, it is evident even here that the gospel 
is not to be identified with, or confined to, any 
one form of expression. It would seem as if in 
the very beginning Jesus sought to guard against 
that error. And if the gospel cannot be identi- 
fied with any one form of expression even as 
taught by Christ, much less should we feel bound 
by the more local form in which Paul set it forth; 
and still less by the expression given to it by theo- 
logians and councils who formulated their state- 
ments in the midst of passionate controversy, in 
times remote from Bible days, surrounded by 
an alien culture, and often with no clear concep- 
tion of the essential gospel message. 

But of still greater importance than either of 
these is the further consideration that the termi- 
nology which Jesus used is best adapted to 
express the real nature of the gospel clearly and 
universally. The two forms of expression that 
he adopted are marked by especial richness, and 
bring the gospel into touch with all life. It is 
significant that he did not use the philosophical 
language of formal thought, nor the legal termi- 
nology of his day, nor the speech of contempo- 
rary literary and scientific culture, but the two 
categories of life and a paternal kingdom. 

The terms of life are as universal as the human 



134 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

race, and are full of the wealth of meaning that 
pertains to life in all of its manifoldness. Perhaps 
we might say that Christianity is life — the only 
true life. Even under the guise of the kingdom 
of God, the gospel appears as life in the kingdom. 
The adoption of this terminology for the procla- 
mation of the gospel, therefore, brings to light 
its inner nature as a vital union of the spiritual 
man with the universal Spirit, and makes this 
conception everywhere intelligible. 

But this is not all of the gospel. Religion, at 
least the Christian religion, is not adequately 
defined by calling it the life of the soul in com- 
munion with God. It has earthly relationships 
and everyday duties. In expressing these also 
Jesus chose a terminology at once universal 
and fitted to manifest clearly their character. 
He took the mingled concepts of the family 
and the kingdom. Everywhere there is some 
sort of community life under one or both of 
these aspects ; and this renders universally 
intelligible the social teachings of the gospel as 
set forth by Jesus. 

Thus wherever the gospel goes the concep- 
tions are already prepared for teaching it in its 
original form of statement — and for teaching it in 
the most practical way, by bringing it into imme- 
diate touch with those phases of life which it must 
most influence if it remains true to its mission. 



OF THE GOSPEL 135 

2. But back of terminology, the foregoing 
exposition settles the more important question 
of the true nature of the gospel of Jesus, and 
makes it certain that this is not chiefly a matter 
of knowledge. The conclusions reached in chap. 
ii, based upon the assumption that the original 
gospel was a religious message, are now proved 
to be true by an examination of the New Testa- 
ment itself. In this new light they may well be 
reviewed and reinforced here. 

That the New Testament gospel was pri- 
marily a religious message will be apparent 
from a consideration of the two conditions of 
salvation on the human side — repentance and 
faith. 

It is here evident, without question, that Chris- 
tianity is not divorced from knowledge. Repent- 
ance is primarily a change of mind. There is 
a new way of thinking. Faith, likewise, is based 
upon an intellectual conviction that Jesus is what 
he claims to be, and that what he says is trust- 
worthy. But this is not all there is to repentance 
and faith, nor the chief part. The change of mind 
in repentance is a change respecting moral issues 
— a changed attitude toward God, a forsaking of 
sin, a new ideal of living. It necessarily involves, 
therefore, an incidental change of feeling and a 
fundamental change of will. To repent, in the New 
Testament sense, is to turn one's whole nature, in- 



136 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

tellectual, emotional, and volitional, away from sin, 
toward righteousness and God. So also faith is 
chiefly a religious rather than an intellectual act. 
While the mind must be sufficiently satisfied to 
give it confidence, yet there remains a distinc- 
tively religious act of trust upon the basis of 
this confidence, and a moral act of obedience 
upon the basis of the confidence and trust ; the 
whole colored by a feeling of joy at a course of 
life in line with the dictates of conscience. All 
of this is involved in New Testament faith. It is 
therefore an act of the entire religious nature — 
a resting in confident trust upon God as revealed 
by Jesus Christ, and a joyful willingness to do his 
will. 

The object of faith, moreover, is also reli- 
gious in character, being either Christ or God or 
the gospel. Faith is sometimes directed toward 
one of these, and sometimes toward another. 
Eventually it includes them all. But Christian 
faith has to do with these things as Christ rep- 
resents them, and that is invariably as religious 
objects. God, according to Jesus, is not so much 
a metaphysical being, to be intellectually be- 
lieved in, as he is the heavenly Father who cares 
for his children and would save them from the 
blight and curse of sin, and who is therefore 
to be trusted and loved. Jesus presents him- 
self as the object of faith, not in the character 



OF THE GOSPEL 137 

of a metaphysical Christology, founded upon the 
Greek doctrine of the Logos, but as a personal 
sympathizing human and divine Savior, clothed 
with the authority and saving power of God. We 
are saved by faith in Christ, not by belief in 
Christology. The other object of faith, the gos- 
pel, Jesus always represents as a message of sal- 
vation, not as a theorv of salvation elaborated 
into a theological creed. The gospel message 
is, in a sentence, that God still loves men, and 
is both willing and able to forgive their sins 
and save them from sin, as soon as they make 
it possible for him to do so by repenting and 
returning to him through his Son Jesus Christ, 
whom he has sent into the world as his anointed 
representative. This is a religious message. 
It does not depend for its value upon being 
expressed in an intellectual creed which shall 
give a true explanation of how salvation is ac- 
complished. It lies back of all theories, in the 
very nature of God and man and sin, and has 
been wrought into the historical life of the world 
by the earthly work of Jesus. Man's theory 
about it may legitimately be presented in a 
theology ; but that theology is not the gospel 
message itself, and hence not the object of faith. 
This religious and moral character of the object 
of faith reacts, in turn, upon the act of faith, 
making even the intellectual element therein con- 



138 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

tained belong to the jurisdiction of the conscience, 
rather than of the speculative reason. 

Both the nature of repentance and the nature 
and objects of faith, therefore, make it evident 
that the gospel is addressed primarily to man's 
religious and moral nature, and so belongs most 
distinctively to the realm of the conscience, the 
feeling, and the will. 

This fact is still further established by other 
teachings of Jesus. 

In John 7:17 Jesus says: "If any man 
willeth to do his [God's] will, he shall know of 
the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I 
speak from myself." In John 8 : 3 1 , 32, he says : 
"If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my 
disciples ; and ye shall know the truth and the 
truth shall make you free." In both of these 
passages the truth of the gospel is declared to 
be that which is known by obedience. Now, 
what kind of truth can be so known : scientific 
truth, such as a knowledge of whether the sun 
revolves around the earth, or of how many ages 
the earth required to reach its present geological 
condition ; philosophical truth, such as will 
satisfy one with reference to the validity of the 
doctrine of evolution ; historical truth, that 
will establish the facts concerning the Mosaic 
authorship of the Pentateuch ; theological 
truth, that will settle the questions of the Trini- 



OF THE GOSPEL 139 

ty, the infallibility of Scripture, and the doc- 
trine of the atonement ? Everyone knows that 
Jesus had in mind no such questions of scientific 
and speculative import. Truth does not belong 
exclusively to the intellectual realm. The high- 
est truth does not belong there. Without ques- 
tion Jesus refers to what we may call life-truth, 
or religious truth — truth that clarifies the con- 
science, quickens the sympathies, directs and 
strengthens the will ; the kind of truth that has 
to do with the consciousness of sin, repentance of 
sin, trust in God, and freedom from sin. Indeed, 
that is what he goes on to say: "The truth shall 
make you free ; " it being plain from the suc- 
ceeding discussion that he means free from sin. 

This kind of truth cannot be known by a 
purely intellectual act, but can be appropriated 
only by the whole rational, religious, and moral 
nature of man. No intellectual acceptance of a 
body of knowledge can make a man free from 
sin ; but only the activity of the will, whereby 
he works himself progressively free from sin in 
a life of obedience to moral truth, which, in turn, 
he progressively apprehends by loving loyalty 
to Christ, through whom, again, God enters into 
his life to help. 

Christ everywhere emphasizes this. "Not 
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that 



i 4 o RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." 
"Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which 
is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and 
mother." In ending the Sermon on the Mount, 
Jesus says : " He that heareth these sayings of 
mine and doeth them" shall be secure. Again 
he says : " If ye know these things, happy are ye 
if ye do them." In the judgment scene recorded 
in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, Christ 
pronounces sentence on the ground of what 
is done and left undone. This has always been 
a great grief to theology, which pronounces 
judgment on the basis of what is believed or 
disbelieved. But theology here has unquestion- 
ably departed from Christ. However we may 
try to get around it, and make salvation a matter 
of intellectual belief, Jesus universally presents 
it as due to an activity of the will toward God 
and the right, which God responds to with the 
power that guarantees success. There is no real 
salvation except a practical moral and religious 
freedom from sin, won through the truth, in the 
sphere of actual life. This, of course, does not 
deny God's co-operation and Christ's atonement, 
but rather is based upon these. Nor does it deny 
the saving efficacy of faith; but proves that faith 
and belief, in the sense in which the latter has 
come to be used, are not synonymous. Paul 
sums up the whole matter in the spirit of the 



OF THE GOSPEL 141 

Master when he says: "Work out your own sal- 
vation with fear and trembling ; for it is God that 
worketh in you both to will and to work, for his 
good pleasure." 

In another place Jesus declares himself to be 
the way, the truth, and the life. No man Com- 
eth unto the Father but by him. The kind 
of truth that could be incarnated in Jesus is the 
distinctive truth of the gospel. Instances might 
be multiplied, but it is unnecessary. From what 
has already been said it is sufficiently evident 
that Jesus regarded his gospel as primarily a 
religious message, rather than as a new body of 
intellectual knowledge. 

If we turn now from the words of Jesus to 
the apostolic writings, we find the same teach- 
ing concerning this matter. 

Paul writes to the church at Corinth: "And 
I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not 
with excellency of speech or of wisdom, pro- 
claiming unto you the testimony of God. For 
I determined not to know anything among 
you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And 
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and 
in much trembling. And my speech and my 
preaching were not in persuasive words of 
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and 
of power : that your faith should not stand in 
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 



1 42 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

"Which things also we speak, not in words 
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the 
Spirit teacheth : comparing spiritual things with 
spiritual." " The word of the cross is to them 
that are perishing foolishness ; but unto us 
who are being saved it is the power of God." 
"Where is the wise ? where is the disputer of 
this world? hath not God made foolish the 
wisdom of the world ? For seeing that in the 
wisdom of God the world through its wisdom 
knew not God, it was God's good pleasure 
through the foolishness of the preaching [Greek, 
'the thing preached'] to save them that be- 
lieve. Greeks seek after wisdom : but we preach 
Christ crucified, unto gentiles foolishness, but 
unto them that are called, Christ the power of 
God and the wisdom of God." "Christ sent me, 
to preach the gospel : not in wisdom of words, 
lest the cross of Christ should be made void." 

Again, writing to Timothy, after warning him 
to avoid profitless discussions, Paul says: "The 
firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, 
The Lord knoweth them that are his : and, Let 
everyone that nameth the name of the Lord 
depart from unrighteousness." And in writing 
to Titus he gives explicitly the things that he 
regards as befitting sound doctrine : That the 
aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in 
faith, in love, in patience. He goes on to give 



OF THE GOSPEL 143 

other similar directions, ending with the ex- 
hortation to look for the blessed hope of the 
appearing of Christ who gave himself for us that 
he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify 
us unto himself. These are the things that Titus 
is to teach and exhort. The conception of what 
constitutes gospel truth is evident. In his won- 
derful eulogy of love in the thirteenth chapter of 
First Corinthians, Paul says: "Love never fail- 
eth : whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish 
away; for we know in part. Now abideth faith, 
hope, love." He surely did not regard the essence 
of the gospel as consisting in that which he 
declared to be partial and transitory. It was to 
be sought rather in the permanent qualities of 
religious truth. 

From these passages, and many others, it is 
clear that Paul, in spite of the fact that he began 
the dogmatic process by explaining the gospel 
of Jesus to the existing thought of his day, did 
not regard the gospel as being a theological body 
of knowledge, but as a salvation from sin, or a 
new way of righteousuess, through the power of 
God, appropriated by the faith of man. Not 
knowledge, but faith, saves a man. And with 
Paul, as with Christ, faith is a matter of the whole 
moral and religious nature, including confidence 
and trust in Christ, love for him, and the practi- 
cal activity of the will in loyalty to him. 



144 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

In the other New Testament writers we find 
some very instructive passages in corroboration 
of this position. 

John gives two remarkable definitions of God. 
Recall for a moment the Nicene idea of God, 
with its metaphysical subject-matter and philo- 
sophical terminology. Recall the history of the 
doctrine of God down through the centuries, with 
its wearisome speculative discussions of a meta- 
physical essence. Then turn back to John and 
read his two great declarations: "God is light;" 
"God is love." We come into an entirely differ- 
ent atmosphere. While not needing to deny 
that there is a metaphysical truth about God, we 
realize that the highest and most important truth 
concerning him is of a religious kind. Light and 
love cannot be known by intellectual processes ; 
only the theory of them can be so understood. 
But that is comparatively a small matter. The 
man who is truly orthodox in his treatment of light 
and love is not he who accepts a given scientific 
theory concerning them, but he who takes a right 
attitude toward them in his living, and uses them 
as he ought. No more can the Christian God be 
known through intellectual processes. "Blessed 
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Here 
also the truly orthodox man is not the one who 
subscribes to a given theological theory of God, 
but the one who takes a right attitude toward 



OF THE GOSPEL 145 

him, and lives as he ought in view of the fact 
that there is such a God. The church has no 
right to make orthodoxy depend upon a given 
intellectual theory of God, such, for instance, as 
the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity, however true 
it may be. According to the New Testament, God 
is pre-eminently an ethical being; orthodoxy is 
primarily a matter of right relationships with 
him. 

In another place John says : "This is the vic- 
tory that overcometh the world, even our faith" — 
not knowledge, but faith. One knowledge might 
succeed another forever and the world remain un- 
conquered, because knowledge does not possess 
overcoming power. Such power pertains only 
to faith. In similar spirit, Jude exhorts "to con- 
tend earnestly for the faith which was once for 
all delivered unto the saints." And even if 
the expression "the faith" is here used to desig- 
nate the whole body of apostolic teaching, it 
still is distinctively a faith and not a system of 
theological knowledge. It was not called "the 
faith" in apostolic times without good reason. The 
meaning is plain from the first part of the verse : 
"While I was giving all diligence to write unto 
you of our common salvation, I was constrained 
to write unto you exhorting you to contend ear- 
nestly for the faith which was once for all delivered 
unto the saints." Jude is talking about the kind 



146 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

of faith that has to do with the "common salva- 
tion." The latter part of this passage is often 
quoted in defense of a theological system that 
came into existence centuries afterward. Rightly 
used, it condemns the pretensions of that theology 
to be a necessary part of the gospel, both because 
the system is a knowledge rather than a faith, 
and because it was not once for all delivered unto 
the saints by Christ, but was worked out by a 
later set of saints on their own responsibility. It 
is the New Testament faith that is to be con- 
tended for — the faith upon which depends "our 
common salvation." 

The whole New Testament, therefore, is in per- 
fect agreement that the gospel is not a new body 
of knowledge constituting a revealed philosophy. 
There is without doubt theological material within 
the New Testament itself, and likewise theological 
speculation. But there is not nearly so much 
"theology," nor is it so "systematic" as has 
often been assumed ; most of it has been read 
back into the book from later days; and what 
little theological speculation there is, is marked 
by a different spirit and aim from that of later 
times — it is always made subservient to practical 
religion. In the main, the New Testament con- 
tents itself with presenting the Christian facts, 
and ethical deductions from those facts. This is 
what it means by "doctrine ; " that is, "teaching." 



OF THE GOSPEL 147 

It makes little or no attempt to explain the 
Christian facts by a coherent theory, as is done 
by theology, properly so called. It is everywhere 
a book of religion, and consistently presents the 
gospel throughout as a new religious and moral 
salvation. 

Now the later dogmatic development trans- 
ferred the gospel from this religious domain of 
the conscience and the will to the realm of the 
speculative reason ; or, to say the very least that 
can be said, it came so near doing this that it 
changed the former proportion, vastly overem- 
phasized the speculative intellectual aspects of 
truth at the cost of those having to do with the 
conscience and the will, and thereby fundamen- 
tally obscured the essential nature of the gospel 
and changed the whole course of its history in 
the world. 

The claim that this development is neces- 
sary for the completeness of Christianity, or 
even that it is the legitimate continuation of 
the gospel, is entirely without foundation, and 
is contrary to reason. The gospel was com- 
plete as it left the lips of its divine Founder. It 
is a strange conception of Jesus that holds 
otherwise. He knew what his message was, and 
he preached it, and preached all of it. The later 
theological process, instead of being the logical 
and necessary continuation of that gospel, was a 



1 48 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

distinct change from the language of life used by 
Jesus to the language of formal philosophical 
thought which he avoided as being inadequate 
for his purposes. The expression of the gospel 
in this language is not, and cannot be, so com- 
plete and satisfactory as was its presentation in 
the rich and universal language of life that Jesus 
chose. The terms of thought change with men's 
changing apprehension of truth ; the terms of life 
remain essentially the same from age to age. 
Thought is only a part of man ; life includes all 
of his interests — it takes in his thinking and feel- 
ing and willing, and everything connected 
with his entire being and activity. How instinct 
with life is the gospel as Jesus preached it ! There 
are the birds of the air and the growing lilies ; the 
ever-living springs and the waving grain ; the 
faithful shepherd careful for his flock, and the hus- 
bandman solicitous for his crops ; the wayward 
son, and the grief-stricken father ; the awakening 
conscience and the developing will ; deadliest 
hate and tenderest love. Jesus' gospel pulsates 
with life and life's manifold interests. 

To turn from this and identify the gospel 
with thought, or even to express it exclusively or 
chiefly in terms of thought, is fatally to restrict 
it and remove it from its most legitimate and 
influential realm of operation. While not di- 
vorced from speculative truth in its proper place 



OF THE GOSPEL 149 

and proportion, the gospel nevertheless is chiefly 
concerned with that religious truth which has to 
do with the mighty forces of right and wrong 
that govern the destiny of the world, and upon a 
man's practical attitude toward which his own 
destiny depends. 

Thus the answer to the question, What is the 
original gospel in its essential nature ? is clear and 
emphatic. The gospel is not confined within an 
earthly institution guarded by a privileged priest- 
hood, upon which men are dependent for salva- 
tion, nor is it a theological body of knowledge, 
to be intellectually subscribed to. To be a Chris- 
tian does not mean, nor involve, the acceptance 
of the extra-biblical dogmatics of the church, 
with its included elements of an obsolete culture. 
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, 
mediated by Jesus Christ ; a salvation addressed 
to man's whole nature, and claiming jurisdiction 
over his entire life. To be a Christian is for a man 
so to turn from sin and surrender himself to Jesus 
Christ in confident trust and loyal allegiance that 
Christ can bring him into vital touch with the 
forces of spiritual life that have their source in 
God, and so assure to him the blessings of salva- 
tion. This is the recovered gospel of the New 
Testament. 



PART II 
THE RESTATEMENT OF THE GOSPEL 



CHAPTER I. 
THE GOSPEL AND THEOLOGY. 

Hitherto the discussion has hinged upon the 
question of the true nature of the gospel. We 
have seen how Christianity suffered a radical 
eclipse during the first centuries of its historical 
development by the change of its dominating 
principle from faith to knowledge, which removed 
it from the religious realm to the sphere of 
speculative philosophy. We have also seen how 
the original gospel has been recovered by a 
historical movement still in progress, in which 
the modern reality-loving spirit has returned 
to the New Testament as it was written, freed 
from the dogmatic system read back into it 
from the later development. What the gospel 
of Jesus is ought by this time to be unmis- 
takably clear : it is a salvation from sin, medi- 
ated from God to men by Jesus Christ, and 
expressing itself in a new divine life of faith, 
dominated by the law of love. The first part of 
our task is completed with this rediscovery of the 
real nature of the gospel. 

The further problem of the restatement of this 
gospel in such terms as will appeal to modern 
i53 



154 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

thought and at the same time do justice to the 
gospel itself now requires attention. 

Inasmuch as the eclipse of the gospel was 
intimately connected with its theological state- 
ment, it has seemed to be helpful in the forego- 
ing treatment, if not indeed absolutely necessary, 
to consider somewhat the relations of the gospel 
and theology. It is worth while, however, to gather 
up the fragments that have been scattered here 
and there, and to discuss more fully and system- 
atically this important subject, even though it 
may involve some repetition of what has already 
been said. The preliminary questions con- 
nected with the relation of the gospel to theology 
will be considered in this chapter, leaving the 
subsequent one for a suggested theological 
restatement. 

I. THE NATURE OF THEOLOGICAL STATEMENT. 

"Theology" and "Christianity" are not syn- 
onymous terms, unless "Christianity" is used in 
the sense of the historical system existing in 
a given age. At any rate "theology" and "the 
gospel" are not synonymous. The gospel is 
primary ; theology is secondary. The gospel is 
not a theory, nor a thought, but a life and an 
experience. As such it is related both to God 
and to men, affects all human interests, and per- 
meates every department of human activity. 



OF THE GOSPEL 155 

Theology is only the theory of this gospel-life 
— its expression in terms of thought, and for 
thought purposes. Christian theology is there- 
fore the science of the gospel of Jesus. 

It is here as in the realm of nature. The 
independent, already existing world of life is 
primary, and the science of biology is the 
attempt to discover its laws and express them 
for the use of man's intelligence. In the re- 
ligious realm the divine life in and through 
Jesus Christ is the primary reality, given by 
God ; and the science of theology seeks to dis- 
cover its nature, laws, presuppositions, and re- 
sults, and then to express these in terms of 
systematic thought. Biology is not natural life ; 
theology is not spiritual life. Life, both natural 
and spiritual, is independent of the science of 
life. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not 
tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth : so is 
everyone that is born" — whether of nature or of 
the Spirit. Life is here, coming from regions 
beyond man's vision. By faith we say it comes 
from God. But it is independent of man; his 
science of it can neither create nor destroy it. The 
most and best that he can do is to take it as it is, 
observe the laws of its operation, and put himself 
into harmony with them. In this way he may 
add to the sum of his own life, by enjoying it in 



156 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

greater fulness and perfection. He may even 
learn enough of its real nature to understand 
something of its mysterious past and to prophesy 
its future. But that is all : man, in his thought, 
can only follow on to understand the life which 
God himself has created. This is as true in re- 
ligion as it is in nature. Theology is neither 
more nor less than the science of the Christian 
life, the spiritual life of God which was ex- 
pressed in Christ Jesus, and through him to men 
and in men. Here theology finds its subject- 
matter, and beyond this, with its necessary prem- 
ises and conclusions, it may not go. 

From these considerations it is evident that 
the first duty of theology is the explication of 
the Christian faith, and not of something outside 
of that faith. To this faith it must not add, from 
this faith it dare not subtract ; its sole business is 
to set it forth clearly in terms intelligible to 
thought. Theology is not the proud mistress of 
all the sciences ; it is only the humble servant of 
the Christian religion. It will do well to curtail 
its ancient pretensions and give its energies to its 
own great field of work. It is not the business 
of theology to formulate a philosophy of heaven 
and earth, except so far as this is involved in the 
Christian faith. That faith can live side by side 
with many systems of philosophy. Some it must 
doubtless exclude, because they involve teachings 



OF THE GOSPEL 157 

antagonistic to its own fundamental principles ; 
but it does not need to confine itself to any one 
philosophical system. Theology has fulfilled 
its mission when it has done justice to the gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ by setting it forth honestly 
and clearly in a systematic form, according to 
the best light of the age in which and to which it 
speaks. 

While the Christian faith itself forms the 
subject-matter of theology, this involves presup- 
positions and produces results which are of great 
importance in the thought-relations of the gos- 
pel. These also it is the duty of systematic the- 
ology to elucidate. Given the historical Jesus, 
his life and teachings, how must we of neces- 
sity think of this Jesus in order to account for 
his influence in the world ? What manner of 
man was he? What relation does he sustain 
to God and to the world ? We know of Jesus 
chiefly through the New Testament writings. 
How are we to regard these ? What is their 
relation to the Old Testament ? Just how does 
the Bible stand related to Christianity ? Jesus 
told of God. How must we think of God in 
order to do justice to Jesus' thought? Then 
there is man himself; what kind of a being is 
he, in the light of Christ's relation to human 
nature, and his redemptive work? These ques- 
tions take us into the thick of the world's intel- 



158 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

lectual battle. Someone has said that the com- 
ing conflict of Christianity is to be along the 
line of the Christian presuppositions. Whether 
this is true or not, theology certainly must deal 
with these questions. It should be remembered, 
however, that they are always to be treated in 
the light of the Christian facts, not for outside 
speculative purposes. Given the gospel facts, 
what made them possible ? Theology must not 
depart here from the historical foundations of 
Christianity. 

Christianity involves likewise certain conse- 
quences for the individual, for the church, 
and for the world — consequences not directly 
explained in the gospel message itself. A long 
course of history has produced results due di- 
rectly or indirectly to the gospel. How are we 
to regard these in the light of the Christian facts ? 
What new light do they shed upon the nature of 
the gospel ? Much that was vague and uncertain 
at the beginning has been made plain by the in- 
terpretation of history. We cannot, if we would, 
go back to the gospel exactly as it was in the 
first century. It is absolutely necessary for us 
to take it now in the light of its historical life in 
the world. Theology must reckon with these 
consequences of the Christian faith and give to 
them their valuation. 

Here again, in the presuppositions and conse- 



OF THE GOSPEL 159 

quences of the Christian faith, we see the need 
of distinguishing between the gospel and theolo- 
gy. Salvation does not depend upon the solu- 
tion of these questions. They affect only the 
intellectual aspects of the matter, and have chiefly 
an apologetic value. The solution reached in 
one age may be entirely unsatisfactory to the 
thought of another. The conclusions of any age 
are tentative and partial. These speculative de- 
ductions should not be bound upon the gospel 
with adamantine fetters. Men ought to be left 
free to accept the gospel salvation and to reject 
any or all human explanations of its presupposi- 
tions and consequences. 

II. THE VALUE OF THEOLOGICAL STATEMENT. 

We are now ready to ask : What is the value 
of theology ? 

1. That question can best be answered by first 
considering what value it does not possess. The- 
ology cannot save sinners. This is evident from 
its nature as the science of Christian life. The- 
ology can produce spiritual life no more than 
biology can produce natural life. Spiritual life 
is the gift of God : ye must be born from above, 
of the Spirit. The most that theology can do is, 
by setting forth the laws of life, to make plain 
the conditions upon which God bestows this su- 
preme gift. It cannot give men power to comply 



160 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

with those conditions, nor furnish the motive for 
doing so. 

This leads, although perhaps somewhat as a 
digression here, to important considerations con- 
cerning how Christianity is to be propagated. It 
is a mistake to suppose that this is to be done 
chiefly by the preaching of theology. Theology 
at best is man's wisdom. And it is as true 
today as in Paul's time that "preaching should 
not be in persuasive words of wisdom, but in 
demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that 
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, 
but in the power of God." Theology is only the 
expression of the gospel to the intellectual part 
of man, while the gospel itself more truly appeals 
to the conscience and the will. So it happens 
that a man might preach theology for years and 
really preach very little gospel, at most only 
its intellectual aspects. In a recent criticism of 
new theology it was declared that, if the old 
theology was to be given up, preaching would 
have to cease until the new theology was worked 
out; that ministers would meantime have to 
"remain in theological quarantine." "What are 
our progressive preachers meanwhile to preach?" 
is asked with solicitude. There is no difficulty 
in answering that question, if we discriminate 
properly, and realize that theology, old or 
new, is not Christianity, but merely somebody's 



OF THE GOSPEL 161 

attempted explanation of it, and therefore has 
no saving power. If the explanation of a past 
age has ceased to be satisfactory to these min- 
isters, let them leave theology out for a time, 
while it is undergoing repairs, and preach New 
Testament Christianity. Possibly the church 
may not be the loser by the change. At least 
we have good precedent in that early period 
of Christianity before the rise of systems of 
theology, when the church was so marvelously 
successful in its work of evangelization. Great 
revivals are not due to an infallible theology in 
which the preacher feels unshaken confidence, 
but to a faithful and confident preaching of 
Jesus Christ, and to the power of the Holy 
Spirit. Where these conditions are met revivals 
have come in spite of poor theology quite as 
often, perhaps, as by the aid of good theology. 
Effective preaching is, indeed, impossible with- 
out positive belief. But this positive belief 
must be conviction of the truth of the great New 
Testament Christian realities, not conviction that 
the current theological explanation of them is 
right. Thus a man's theology may be "in 
quarantine," and ought to be when it is sick, 
while at the same time he can keep on preach- 
ing Christianity with unshaken confidence, and 
perhaps with even increased effectiveness. 

Life is not begotten by theory, but by life. 



1 62 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

The gospel is to extend its sway by embodying 
itself in forms of life, and so bringing its power 
to bear upon the lives of men. It was thus that 
Jesus preached it, and every successful preacher 
must follow him in this. The gospel must take 
possession of the preacher himself, of all Chris- 
tians, indeed, set them on fire with the divine 
Spirit, and so put them into living touch with 
men. "Ye are my epistles, known and read 
of all men." The world will never be saved by 
theology, but only by the Christ-life reincar- 
nated in loyal disciples, who live out the 
Master's principles of unselfish love. 

Here is brought to light one great weakness 
of Protestantism : it puts undue emphasis upon 
theology. The public services of the church 
are of such a nature that, unless constant and 
intelligent care is exercised, the religious proc- 
lamation of the gospel degenerates into the 
intellectual presentation of Christian thought. 
The tendency for both preacher and listener is 
to be satisfied when the thought is pleasingly 
set forth and clearly understood. Even if Prot- 
estantism had a doctrinal system that did any 
kind of justice to the gospel, still this funda- 
mental difficulty would remain. The question is 
not wholly one of a true or a false theology, but 
the more fundamental question of trying to save 
the world by theology at all, by that which in 



OF THE GOSPEL 163 

its very nature appeals to only one part of man, 
and that the part least characteristically belonging 
to his religious life. Too often the Protestant rule 
has been a maximum of theology and a minimum 
of sympathy. What is needed for the conver- 
sion of the world is a maximum of sympathy 
with just enough theology to direct it intelli- 
gently. There is room for doubt whether the 
theological salvation of Protestantism is much 
better than the churchly salvation of Catholi- 
cism. A man can have an orthodox creed and 
remain unchristian, as truly as he can belong to 
the Roman Catholic church and still be un- 
Christlike. 

There are signs of a better condition of things 
in the Protestant world. A clearer conception of 
the true nature of the gospel is making itself felt 
in less theological and more evangelical preach- 
ing. Moreover, Christianity is in much more 
vital touch with the world's life than it was fifty 
years ago. Protestantism is beginning to realize 
that the separation of church and state ought not 
to mean the divorce of religion and civic affairs ; 
that Christianity must embody itself in the indi- 
vidual, social, and institutional life of an age, if it 
is to exercise its greatest influence. The early 
removal of the gospel from the realm of life to 
that of thought is the chief reason for the slow 
progress that the kingdom of God has made in 



1 64 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

the world. It was due to this transformation that 
when Catholicism finally succeeded in conquering 
the secular world it was not the gospel of Jesus, 
but something else, that had triumphed. The 
Catholic idea that Christianity ought to dominate 
the organic life of society is right. The trouble 
with Catholicism has been its adulterated gospel 
and worldly method. It remains for Protestantism 
to carry out the idea by incorporating the gospel 
of Jesus into the institutional life of the world, 
according to the method inherent in the gospel 
itself. It is in these ways, rather than by means 
of theology, that the kingdom of God is to be 
advanced. 

2. Nevertheless, the theological statement of 
the gospel is of great importance. 

It is necessary, in the first place, in order that 
Christianity may express itself fully to thought. 
Christianity is a historical religion ; "we have not 
followed cunningly devised fables." It had its 
beginnings at a definite time and place, and has 
entered into history and helped to direct its 
course. It has thus become a part of the world's 
thought and life. Moreover, Christianity deals 
with questions that touch the widest reaches of 
thought of which the human mind is capable. 
It is not merely a sentiment, nor a way of living, 
but a kind of thinking as well. And while to 
overemphasize and misplace this intellectual ele- 



OF THE GOSPEL 165 

ment by identifying Christian thought with a 
given philosophical system, and requiring the 
universal acceptance of this, leads to disastrous 
consequences, yet, on the other hand, to under- 
estimate this thought-element is to make of 
Christianity a chaotic mass of sentimentality, 
unrelated to objective reality and historical con- 
ditions, and to place it at the mercy of subjective 
and individual caprice. This is equally disastrous. 
The thing required is to deal with this truth in a 
way that shall do justice to the thought of Jesus, 
and not attempt to subject it to metaphysical and 
scholastic processes. Christian thought cannot be 
ignored, but must be expressed clearly and faith- 
fully, if the gospel is to make itself fully known. 

Theological statement is necessary, further, in 
order that Christianity may secure the complete 
allegiance of a man. Man is a thinking being. 
Intelligence is a constituent element in his nature. 
He must think. The more of a man he is, the 
more will he think. As soon as anything touches 
his life there is an instinctive effort of the ra- 
tional faculty to bring it into adjustment with the 
existing store of knowledge. To the extent that 
this cannot be done successfully the new element 
remains unknown, and fails to influence the life. 
No one thoroughly accepts what he does not 
understand. 

Much more is it true that a man cannot believe 



1 66 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

what is contrary to his reason. When someone 
declares, for instance, that he believes a thing 
because it is in the Bible, whether it contradicts 
his reason or not, he has already accepted the 
Bible in its entirety because it seemed reasonable 
to him so to do ; and it would do greater vio- 
lence to his reason to change his previously 
established view of the Bible than to believe an 
isolated fact that might seem unreasonable. He 
still decides according to his reason. For every 
man the rational faculty is the final judge of the 
credibility of that which comes to him with claims 
of being the truth. 

But the intellect is not only a constituent 
element in human nature, it is also regulative 
of activity and character. The estimate that a 
person puts upon a thing in his thinking largely 
determines what he will do with it. Feeling de- 
pends upon perception, and activity of the will 
depends upon both. A man cannot be ex- 
pected, therefore, to leap in the dark. The more 
important the issue at stake, the greater the 
desire and the obligation to understand its bear- 
ings before taking action. 

For these reasons, if Christianity is to acquire 
full dominion over a man, it must gain the alle- 
giance of his rational faculty. If he is to be a 
strong Christian, he must be an intelligent one. 
Permanent dualism between the religious nature 



OF THE GOSPEL 167 

and the rational nature either is impossible or is 
maintained at enormous cost. Sooner or later the 
man's thinking, be it little or much, must come 
into harmony with the gospel that has touched 
his conscience and will, or else these will follow 
his thinking away from Christianity. Chris- 
tianity, therefore, does not exclude thought, but 
welcomes it ; insisting only that it remain loyal 
to Jesus Christ in substance, spirit, and propor- 
tion. 

To reach this rational nature and convince it 
the gospel must be expressed in terms of 
thought. Herein lies the necessity of theology. 
It is the business of this science, as we have 
already seen, to present the gospel in the various 
aspects in which it touches intelligence. It is 
the mediator between the gospel and current 
culture. Theology, therefore, has as its task 
the apprehension and systematization of Chris- 
tian truth, together with the exposition of its 
relations to thought and to history. Its sole pur- 
pose in doing this is to gain the allegiance of 
the mind to Christianity ; and therefore it must 
work, on the one hand, with direct reference to 
the thinking of the age that it wishes to influ- 
ence, and, on the other, with strict fidelity to 
Christian truth. 

Because of the regulative character of intelli- 
gence, it is this faculty that determines also 



1 68 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

what comes within its own sphere and what lies 
outside of it. By means of the intellect a man 
decides that he is not all intellect, and that the 
purely intellectual is not the most valuable part 
of him. By philosophizing he decides not to be 
merely a philosopher. So also in religion, it 
is by theologizing that a man decides that theol- 
ogy is not the most important thing in Chris- 
tianity, and that he will be something more than 
a theologian. Hence a part of the theological 
task is the recognition of its own proper value 
and limitations. 

Theological statement is necessary, in the 
third place, for the intelligent guidance of the 
church as a whole. What has just been said of 
the individual is true also of the church. If it is 
to hold its faith strongly and permanently, that 
faith must approve itself to the common reason 
of Christendom; the church must understand its 
faith as well as feel it. It must know how to 
separate truth from error. It must be able to 
"try the spirits whether they be of God; " only 
remembering to try them according to Christ's 
standards, instead of by metaphysical dogmas of 
its own choosing. Furthermore, the practical 
activities of the church need to be directed intel- 
ligently, and to be kept true to the Christian ideals. 
If church doing outruns church thinking, it leads 
to disaster for both : the activity breaks connec- 



OF THE GOSPEL 169 

tion with its sources, and runs dry in secu- 
larism ; the theology is deprived of its practical 
outlet, and becomes stagnant. 

The church can win glorious missionary con- 
quests, carry everything before it in great popu- 
lar revivals, turn things upside down with its 
practical philanthropies and reforms, and yet 
all of this be only a temporary raid into the 
enemy's territory. In order to make permanent 
occupation of what it carries by assault it must 
conquer the world's intelligence and make Chris- 
tian its thinking. Herein is one cause of the 
wonderful success of primitive Christianity. It 
translated itself into the thought of those early 
centuries and overcame it. And in all of the 
succeeding disciplinary period of the Teutonic 
peoples the thinking of the church played an 
important part. Without doubt this intellectual 
conquest and dominion was accomplished at 
great cost to the spiritual element in Christianity, 
by restricting the scope of its operation ; but 
the evil was due to a mistaken conception of 
the nature of theology, not to theological state- 
ment as such, within the limits of its proper 
sphere. In spite of the danger of overempha- 
sizing theology, it still remains true that the reli- 
gion which is finally to bring the world under its 
sway must be a religion that commends itself 
convincingly to the world's intelligence. 



170 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

III. THE RIGHT OF THEOLOGICAL RESTATEMENT. 

The right of theological restatement is as clear 
and valid as the original right of statement, for it 
is exactly the same in kind. The only reason 
why it is questioned is the identification of the 
old statements with the gospel itself, and the 
mistaken notion that these are a part of New 
Testament Christianity. History makes it plain 
that when these formulations of doctrine were in 
process of making they were open questions, and 
that controversy raged fiercely about them, so great 
were the differences of opinion. But after they 
were once adopted by the church, and men's 
minds had become accustomed to them, and the 
passing centuries had made them a part of vener- 
able antiquity, they became closed questions, 
and began to seem as sacred and binding as the 
gospel itself; men forgot how they had come into 
existence. When, later, the exigencies of the 
situation forced it to read these systems back 
into the Bible, Protestantism ceased to distinguish 
between them and New Testament Christianity. 
Thus, for Catholic and Protestant alike, the one 
on the ground of church authority, the other on 
that of supposed biblical sanction, the accepted 
statements of theology came to be regarded as 
an essential part of Christianity. For this reason, 
when the old statements are called in question, 
many people think that the gospel itself is being 



OF THE GOSPEL 171 

attacked and the hope of salvation undermined ; 
and so they strenuously contend for the old creed 
with all the religious fervor that only the defense 
of the old faith can legitimately call forth. 

It is time that this fiction was given up. The 
known facts abundantly disprove it, and it stands 
in the way of the progress of Christianity. " Bib- 
lical theology" is a misnomor. There is no the- 
ology, properly so called, in the Bible. There is 
abundance of theological material, and great 
wealth of doctrine, in the New Testament sense 
of that term. The Bible is the source of all 
Christian theology. But theology is a science. 
It is a systematization of religious truth, and a phi- 
losophy offered in explanation of it. This science 
is not found in the Scriptures. The teachings of 
Jesus do not appear in a systematic form, but in 
terms of life and social relations. It requires 
laborious research and reconstruction to formu- 
late them into scientific statements. Neither do 
the apostles present the gospel in a theology, 
although doubtless they come nearer to it than 
Jesus does, and that is why theology took its 
point of departure from them rather than from 
Christ. But still, even with them, while the theo- 
logical material is more accessible, there is no 
systematic arrangement, nor attempt at true 
philosophical explanation. They wrote for spe- 
cific practical purposes, and always massed their 



172 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

teachings so as to bear upon the end in view. 
They were scientific neither in purpose nor in 
method. Paul may have had a theological sys- 
tem, but, if so, he did not incorporate it into the 
New Testament ; and it is with great difficulty 
that we are able to reconstruct his system, even 
tentatively. It is full of gaps and of things taken 
for granted. Paul was not primarily a theologian, 
but a vigorous thinker and great religious reformer. 
The New Testament is a book of religious truth, 
not of theological science ; and is content to state 
this truth in its practical aspects, upon the sole 
authority of Jesus Christ, and not because its 
philosophical foundations have been worked out 
and approved. 

One searches the Scriptures in vain for such 
church dogmas as those of the Trinity, the per- 
son of Christ, and the atonement. This state- 
ment does not question the truth of a single 
declaration of the Bible on these great subjects, 
nor deny in the least their importance, nor pro- 
nounce judgment upon the dogmas as later formu- 
lated. It merely brings to a focus what has been 
said. The creeds that have passed current in the 
church for centuries were made without excep- 
tion in post-biblical times. They have absolutely 
no divine sanction, except for the Catholic, who 
believes that the church continued New Testa- 
ment inspiration and authority. It is entirely 



OF THE GOSPEL 173 

legitimate for a Protestant to call them in ques- 
tion, recognizing meanwhile their former provi- 
dential mission, without reflecting in the least 
upon his soundness in the faith. What man has 
made man has a right to criticise and change. 

The right to restate theology, therefore, rests 
upon the same basis, and is as incontestable, as 
the right of original statement. In both cases it 
derives its justification, not from Bible sanction, 
but from the nature and value of theology itself. 
Theology first arose in response to the inborn 
impulse of the human mind to know and to ar- 
range its knowledge in systematic form. Its 
continuation is due to the same impulse. It ac- 
complished its purpose in the early centuries by 
assuming a certain form. If in another age it 
can fulfil its end better by adopting a new expres- 
sion, it has as good a right to do so. 

In this principle, involving the interrelations 
of the gospel, theology, and culture, is discovered 
a further vindication of the right of theological 
restatement. 

The gospel itself is permanent, at least so far 
as we can now see. As long as the present moral 
world-order exists, the gospel of Jesus is better 
adapted to save it from sin and satisfy its deep- 
est needs than any other means conceivable. 
With all of our short comings in its application, 
it has achieved far greater success than any other 



174 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

agency of reform ; and this is unquestionably due 
to its own intrinsic worth and its remarkable adap- 
tation to the conditions of life. The gospel, more- 
over, was complete and final as embodied in the 
person, work, and teachings of Jesus. All that 
remained to be done was the work of application. 
No essential thing was lacking, to be supplied by 
later additions ; nothing was out of proportion, 
to be corrected by a new distribution of em- 
phasis. Then, as now, and forever, as long as 
God and holiness, human nature and human 
need, remain unchanged, the gospel of Christ is 
the power of God unto salvation to everyone 
that believeth. 1 

This permanent character of the gospel, how- 
ever, does not pertain to theology. Theology 
has the definite aim of stating religion in terms 
of thought. It mediates between the gospel and 
culture. Its very object, therefore, requires it to 
enter into contemporary ways of thinking, and 
adopt as its means of expression the scientific 
and philosophical concepts, terminology, and 
dialectics of the age which it addresses. These 
inevitably react upon it. The meaning that they 
have previously acquired colors the truth they 
are now used to express. Thus in the nature of 

x This final character of the gospel of Jesus is here assumed; 
no proof is attempted. For vindication of the assumption, see 
Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxvi. 



OF THE GOSPEL 175 

the case there cannot be an independent dog- 
matic statement of Christianity. Theology is 
always a combination of Bible-teaching with the 
philosophical thought of the day in which it is 
formulated. 

But this philosophy changes, and the culture 
represented by it passes away. The knowledge 
of one generation is only preparatory to that of 
the next. Thought is never final and perfect. 
Not that it is all false, but partial, incomplete, 
transitory. Each age sees through a glass darkly: 
the world awaits the clearer vision. "Whether 
there be knowledge, it shall vanish away ; for we 
know in part." 

" Our little systems have their day ; 

They have their day and cease to be ; 

They are but broken lights of thee, 
And thou, O Lord, art more than they. 
Let knowledge grow from more to more, 

But more of reverence in us dwell ; 

That mind and soul, according well, 
May make one music as before, 

But vaster." 

The transitory character of culture, therefore, 
makes theology transitory also. The better the 
theology is adapted to fulfil its mission to a 
given age, the more fully will it be saturated with 
contemporary ways of thinking. When in the 
course of the world's progress this culture be- 
comes obsolete, the theology of that age becomes 



176 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

obsolete with it. This theology may have been 
formulated in the supposition that it was the 
only possible statement of Christianity, and so 
was the absolute truth of God. But the fuller 
knowlege of the new generation reveals the im- 
perfections of the very systems of thought that 
have made its own glory possible. Truth abides 
forever; our apprehension of truth changes 
with the progress of thought: the gospel of 
Jesus is final and permanent; our statement of 
this gospel should keep pace with the growing 
culture. Inasmuch as it is the sole business of 
theology to mediate between the gospel and 
thought, when the old statements cease to do this 
there exists the unquestionable right of restate- 
ment to meet the requirements of the new condi- 
tions. Theology should neither be bound by the 
past nor seek to bind the future, but should 
demand a free and independent expression of the 
gospel in the present. 

IV. THE NEED OF THEOLOGICAL RESTATEMENT AT 
THE PRESENT TIME. 

Not only is it true that Christianity has a 
right to restatement, but it is further true that 
such restatement is absolutely obligatory when- 
ever changed conditions have made the old 
statements obsolete. Such a time has come. 
If Christianity is to get the hold upon our 



OF THE GOSPEL 177 

age that it ought, its theology must be re- 
stated. 

1. Owing to the existence of a new civiliza- 
tion, the theological statements of the past are 
either meaningless or unsatisfactory to an increas- 
ing number of people, in that they are expressed 
in terms of an obsolete culture. This point was 
discussed so fully in connection with the modern 
religious movement for the recovery of the gospel 
(chap, iii) that it does not need to be considered 
at any length here. The state of things there 
described as the result of that process is the con- 
dition that now exists. As the movement for 
the recovery of the gospel was due to the nature 
of the modern spirit, so the movement for the 
restatement of the gospel is necessitated by the 
new culture which that spirit has created. This 
culture has occasioned a divorce between the 
modern church and its ancient theology. 

The recovered gospel has manifested itself 
with mighty power in these latter days, and still 
is doing so. But there are signs of a coming 
decline unless the thinking of the church is so 
revivified that it shall be able to overtake and 
assume the leadership of the modern religious 
activities that have outrun it and come first to 
Christ. The relative dearth in missionary zeal and 
offerings is not due to hard times, but, partly at 
least, to the more fundamental difficulty here 



i 7 8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

pointed out. The missionary movement was 
caused by a genuine gospel revival, resulting 
from the persistent influence of the open Bible. 
The first fervor has passed away, and the popular 
interest will diminish unless it is led on by the con- 
secrated thinking of the church. The same is true 
also with reference to the popular revivals of the 
past century in Christian lands. The preaching 
has been on the basis of the old theology, which 
has often been made an important issue. Men 
have not been converted by means of the theolo- 
gy, however, but rather because of the gospel 
truth presented in addition to the theology, and 
because of the incitement of religious feeling and 
the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. The 
theology has not gotten hold of them, their 
thinking has not been convinced, and when the 
feeling has subsided they have often had no defi- 
nite conceptions to fall back upon. Thus the very 
preaching that emphasizes theology has failed to 
reach the faculty to which theology must appeal. 
This is one secret of superficial revivals, and of 
the present falling off in the demand for profes- 
sional evangelists. If lasting work is to be 
done, if the ignorant are to be instructed, the 
alienated reclaimed, the heathen conquests ex- 
tended, the gospel must now express itself in a 
theology that is in touch with modern thought. 
Such a restatement is directly in sympathy with 



OF THE GOSPEL 179 

evangelistic activity, and will give it guidance. 
Evangelical Christians are making a fatal mistake 
when they protest against it. 

All of the reasons that made it necessary for 
the gospel to express itself in a certain form in the 
early centuries in order to meet the intellectual 
needs of that age make it equally imperative 
for it now to re-express itself in new terms, if it 
is to exercise the greatest possible influence on 
modern life. Only thus can the blessings of the 
gospel be preserved side by side with liberty of 
thinking and the progress of thought. 

2. As a part of the foregoing, but deserving 
special mention because of its direct bearing 
upon theology, a second reason for the restate- 
ment of Christianity at the present time lies in 
the modern achievements in other departments of 
Christian thought. The scientific study of the New 
Testament and of church history has produced 
a large body of new knowledge, which is still 
increasing. This knowledge has been accumu- 
lated independently of systematic theology, and 
has quietly and unintentionally undermined it. 
Consequently there is today a gulf between the 
scientific knowledge of the church and its author- 
ized theology. It is necessary to reckon with 
this new knowledge and determine its effect 
upon Christian thought. Enough returns are 
already in to make it certain that a theological 



180 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

reconstruction will have to take place, and to 
render the beginnings of the task possible. The 
best assured results are fortunately those having 
to do most directly with the chief subject-matter 
of theology. The new Bible exegesis has re- 
covered the gospel of Jesus ; theology should 
now undertake the restatement of it. The new 
system of theology must not be made a closed 
circle, however ; but a scientific method should be 
adopted here, also, which will leave room for the 
incorporation of future results from the biblical 
and historical sciences. 

3. A third reason why the gospel should be 
restated is that many of the old statements fail 
to do justice to the essential truth of Christianity; 
they are more or less extraneous to the faith. 
Early Christian theology was the lineal successor 
of Greek philosophy ; and instead of starting 
with the gospel and expressing only that, it 
attempted to harmonize the gospel, as a new 
divine philosophy, with the existing systems. 
The result was that much outside matter was 
interwoven into theology. Then, after this had 
become identified with Christianity, all succeed- 
ing dogmatics had to reckon with the whole 
combination. Subsequent theology thus came 
to have as part of its subject-matter a mass 
of material that is not intrinsically a part of the 
Christian faith. A new statement of Christianity 



OF THE GOSPEL 181 

is necessary which shall take the gospel message 
itself for its theme, and consider nothing else, or 
more, than this, with its necessary presupposi- 
tions and conclusions. 

4. Somewhat akin to these others, still another 
reason for the restatement of Christianity is the 
need of a Protestant theology. Protestantism 
today has no theological system of its own. It 
started out with Roman Catholic dogmatics, and 
for three hundred and fifty years has been trying 
to modify this to suit its needs. The result has 
been a failure. This theology is contrary to the 
fundamental principle of Protestantism, inasmuch 
as it depends upon the church-development 
theory for its validity. It cannot be divorced 
from the Roman ecclesiastical system, whose in- 
separable and congenial companion it has been 
from the beginning. The whole Catholic system 
is organic ; but Protestant modifications of it are 
fragmentary, without coherence or consistency. 
The Protestant theologians cut down the organic 
Catholic tree, sawed it up into timber, and built 
a mechanical theological house of it ; and alas ! 
the house has fallen upon our heads. 

This lack of a characteristic theology ac- 
counts, at least in part (the other part being the 
undue emphasis put upon theology), for a Prot- 
estantism split up into sects. There is no organic 
framework to hold it together. It is futile to 



1 82 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

talk of a reunion on the basis of Catholic theol- 
ogy, even though that be confined to the great 
historic creeds. If Protestantism is ever to be 
united, it must be upon the basis of its own fun- 
damental principle. This principle is the pri- 
mary New Testament truth that salvation is by 
faith in Jesus Christ and by that alone ; or, in 
another form, that Christianity is a life of faith 
in Christ, as set forth in the New Testament. 
Now, upon this Protestant foundation has been 
superimposed the Roman Catholic body of doc- 
trine. Protestantism is thus made to rest upon 
two incongruous principles, and is divided against 
itself. 

What is needed is a distinctive Protestant 
theology. The practical and ecclesiastical Ref- 
ormation of the sixteenth century, which went 
back to the New Testament in matters of church 
reform and religious life, must be completed 
by a Protestant theological Reformation which 
shall not be afraid to cut beneath the whole 
Roman Catholic dogmatic development, go back 
to the New Testament for the subject-matter of 
Christian thought also, and give to Protestant- 
ism, in systematic form, an adequate and organic 
expression of its own fundamental idea. As 
this idea is that of salvation by faith in Jesus 
Christ, Protestant theology will occupy itself 
with the explication of the Christian faith, as dis- 



OF THE GOSPEL 183 

cussed under the preceding heading. Such a 
theology would have a determining influence in 
uniting Protestantism in its conflict with sin and 
with an antagonistic Catholicism. 

This theological restatement, necessary as it 
is, is likely to occasion a great deal of discom- 
fort to the men who undertake it. In the other 
departments of Christian knowledge the work 
can be done quietly, and its bearings not be 
clearly seen. But the theological task involves 
a conscious and deliberate break with the tradi- 
tional theology of the church. It is not always 
recognized that the theologian is simply bring- 
ing to light the necessary implications of the 
results reached in other departments; he is re- 
garded as the original disturber of the peace of 
the church, and is decried as an arch-heretic, 
while the real offenders go free. If we do not 
want a new theology we must stop the new 
Bible knowledge, we must overthrow the new 
scientific method, we must discountenance mod- 
ern culture and civilization, we must roll the 
world backward toward that ancient past in 
which the old theology was formed. That is the 
only civilization to which it will ever be satisfac- 
tory. 

In spite of the inherent difficulties of the task, 
however, in spite of misunderstanding or even 
abuse and persecution, the imperative duty of the 



1 84 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

theologian today is to give to the church a theology 
which shall, on the one hand, do justice to the 
gospel itself, as rediscovered in the scientific study 
of the Christian sources, and thus furnish an ade- 
quate systematic expression for the fundamental 
principle of Protestantism; and which shall, on 
the other hand, so take account of modern cul- 
ture as to express this permanent gospel in forms 
of thought and speech which, instead of being 
repulsive and ineffective, shall appeal to the mod- 
ern world with the greatest possible force. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE GOSPEL RESTATED: A SUGGESTED 
THEOLOGICAL SYSTEM. 

It is not so necessary to restate the gospel as it 
is to free it from the incumbrance of the old 
statements. These have often misrepresented 
and obscured it, and diminished its effectiveness 
in the modern world. When this evil is re- 
moved, and the gospel is allowed to stand forth 
as Jesus himself preached it, it will appeal pow- 
erfully to our age, even without any restatement. 
This is because of the gospel's universal applica- 
tion to common human needs and the universality 
of the form in which Jesus presented it. His 
teaching is animated by the spirit of intense 
reality, and is expressed in the language of 
life. These are two things especially character- 
istic of our own times. As we have seen, the 
desire for reality is the modern passion, reality 
in religion no less than in other things. In our 
age also life is at a premium. Everything is 
judged by its practicability for increasing the 
measure and richness of life. From the biolo- 
gist's solitary study of its origin and forms, to 
the greatest invention applying the new scientific 

185 



1 86 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

discovery to the world of affairs, Life everywhere 
is king. "Better fifty years of Europe than a 
cycle of Cathay." And so Christ's gospel, 
charged with reality, and expressed in his own 
terms of life, is particularly adapted to present 
conditions. 

Still, however, there is room for theological 
statement, since the gospel as preached by Jesus 
and the apostles did not have a systematic form. 
Our age, so scientific in its instincts, needs a 
scientific statement of this gospel of divine life 
and its implications. Inasmuch as Jesus' own 
forms of expression are so congenial to our 
times, and the sole business of theology is to 
mediate between the gospel and the thinking of 
an age, it is probable that no better terminology 
is now available than that which he employed. 
In this theology should consider itself most 
fortunate, for its task is thereby greatly simpli- 
fied. By means of this terminology the gospel 
now needs to be stated in a scientific system of 
formal thought. 

The following pages constitute an attempt to 
do this, in such a way as to meet the require- 
ments of the discussion hitherto. It must be 
borne in mind that what is here given is only a 
most meager outline, by way of suggestion, and 
that it should be judged accordingly. 



OF THE GOSPEL 187 

I. THE GOVERNING POSITION OF JESUS CHRIST 
IN THEOLOGY. 

1. Theology must be loyal to the thought 
of Jesus. Christianity is not some vague and 
indefinite thing feeling around in the dark 
among the world's philosophies and hopes for 
its message. It has its message in Christ. 
Our business, therefore, is to find out what his 
thought is — his thought about God, the world, 
and man; about sin and salvation from sin; 
about how we are to live in our social rela- 
tions; about everything that pertains to human 
interests. When found, this thought is to fur- 
nish the ruling conceptions for theology, is to 
be adopted by Christians as their guide, and, 
in all legitimate ways, is to be pressed by 
them upon others. We need to ascertain this 
teaching of Christ in its content, its emphasis or 
proportion, and in what we may call its coloring; 
and then preserve these in our own theological 
system. 

This central and dominating position of Christ 
is the most important thing to be considered 
here — more important than a complete under- 
standing of his person; for we can be loyal to 
him and to his thought whether we can determine 
his place in the world with entire satisfaction 
or not. 

2. As a corollary to the ruling position of 



1 88 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

Jesus in theology, the question arises : How are 
we to know him and what he taught ? This in- 
volves one of the most important Christian pre- 
suppositions: the place of the Bible in Chris- 
tianity. 

The Bible is not the foundation of Christianity. 
"Other foundation can no man lay than that 
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ," says the 
apostle. The Bible does not come first, and 
then Jesus, because the Bible tells of him. Jesus 
comes first, he is the reality, he actually entered 
into history and wrought out redemption in the 
midst of humanity ; the Bible is the record and 
the interpretation of this Jesus and his work of 
redemption. The salvation of mankind is accom- 
plished outside of any book, among the living 
forces of history. It is a fact, whether recorded 
in a book or not. The Bible grows out of this 
historical redemption ; it is the result of it, not 
the cause. This is a distinction of great impor- 
tance, if we would preserve for Christianity its 
vital character and give to the Bible its proper 
place. 

The Old Testament is the record of God's 
preparatory work, in the life of the Hebrew 
people, for the establishment of Christianity in 
the world. God separated this people, and en- 
tered into its historical life through prophet, 
priest, law, and national institution. He re- 



OF THE GOSPEL 189 

vealed himself in the historical life itself. The 
Old Testament is the record of that life, and 
at the same time is also a part of it, because 
produced by it. Because of its intimate con- 
nection with the preparatory stages of Chris- 
tianity, it will always have a special value. 
Because of the revelation which God therein 
makes of himself, his purposes for men, and the 
principles according to which he governs and 
judges nations, it will remain a great store- 
house of divine wisdom. But the Old Testa- 
ment is not distinctively the Christian book. Its 
chief significance lies in the influence that it 
exerted in making Jesus of Nazareth possible 
and fitting the world for his reception. He him- 
self then became the foundation of Christianity, 
and thenceforth the relation of the Old Testa- 
ment to the religion which he founded became 
indirect. 

Jesus lived and accomplished his mission of 
salvation in the midst of the world's life. The 
New Testament gospel narratives are the record 
of this. He set forth the principles according to 
which his new religion was founded, and gave 
commandments to his followers. The gospel 
narratives are also the record of these. They 
derive their importance from the fact that it was 
Jesus, the founder of Christianity, who lived and 
spoke what they record. 



: : i RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

Jesus in theology, the question arises : How are 
: know him and what he taught ? This in- 
volves one of the most important Christian pre- 
suppositions: the place of the Bible in Chris- 

The Bible is not the foundation of Christianity. 
:er foundation can no man lay than that 
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ," says the 
apostle. The Bible does not come first, and 
then Jesus, because the Bible tells of him. Jesus 
comes first, he is the reality, he actually entered 
into history and wrought out redemption in the 
midst of humanity ; the Bible is the record and 
the interpretation of this Jesus and his work of 
redemption. The salvation of mankind is accom- 
plished outside of any book, among the G 
forces of history. It is a fact, whether recorded 
in a book or not. The Bible grows out of this 
historical redemption; it is the result of it, not 
the cause. This is a distinction of great impor- 
tance, if we would preserve for Christian: I 
vital character and give to the Bible its proper 
place. 

The Old Testament is the record of God's 
preparatory work, in the life of the Hebrew 
people, for the establishment of Christianity in 
the world. God separated this people, and en- 
tered into its historical life through prophet, 
priest, law, and national institution. He re- 



vealed himself in the historical life itself. The 

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190 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

The new life brought to the world by Jesus 
organized itself into a church, under the immediate 
direction of those who had been most intimately 
associated with him, and therefore best under- 
stood his will; and who, because of their unique 
position, enjoyed in an extraordinary measure 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The book of 
Acts records this, in part. These churches found 
themselves in special conditions of need and 
danger in the untried conflict with heathenism, 
as the gospel in institutional form first entered 
into the world's affairs. The apostles, knowing 
Christ's mind, and enjoying his Spirit, wrote 
epistles in which they adapted this gospel to 
these concrete conditions of thought and life in 
the churches. These various writings, thus called 
forth by the early historical life of Christianity 
in its creative period, were collected by the 
church in the second century, and have become 
the classical literature of Christianity. 

The importance of this literature is not due to 
outside causes, however, but to its internal re- 
lationship to the historical Christ and the institu- 
tional establishment of Christianity. It is the 
literature of the Christian foundations. Its inspira- 
tion is the inspiration which entered into human 
life in Jesus Christ, and found expression in the 
Christian church organized under the direction of 
his apostles. The circumstances attending its ori- 



OF THE GOSPEL 191 

gin can, in the nature of the case, never be repro- 
duced, and hence the New Testament has a 
unique character and an imperishable validity. It 
is not, however, a Christian law book so much as 
the underlying constitution according to which 
all Christian legislation must be enacted. 

This constitutional character of the New 
Testament determines the nature of our loyalty 
to it. The authoritative quality of Christ's 
teachings is sufficiently obvious, and does not 
need to be enlarged upon. The case is some- 
what different with the other portions of the 
New Testament, notwithstanding the traditional 
custom of putting all parts of the book upon the 
same plane. The question has already been 
touched upon above in discussing the new 
exegesis (pp. 103-6) and the new attitude 
toward the New Testament literature (pp. 114- 
17). The difference between the teaching of 
Jesus and that of the apostles may be summed 
up in a single sentence : his was universal in 
both form and substance ; theirs was univer- 
sal in substance, but local in form. No bet- 
ter illustration can be found than Paul's doc- 
trine of justification by faith, which is the 
adaptation of Jesus' teaching of the forgiveness 
of sins to an age steeped in legalism. The 
doctrine of forgiveness most effectively takes 
that form in opposition to a theory of salvation 



1 92 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

by works. Jesus did not directly attempt to 
combat legalism, but Paul did, and this accounts 
for the form of his teaching. The underlying 
truth is the same in both cases, but Paul has 
localized it and intellectualized it for polemi- 
cal purposes. Similar conditions reappeared in 
Luther's day, and that partly accounts for his 
adoption of Paul's terminology rather than that of 
Jesus. Again the authorized salvation had come 
to be a matter of works, and the conditions of 
Pharisaism were almost literally reproduced. 
Paul's juridical expression of the doctrine of 
forgiveness exactly fitted this condition of things, 
as it had that of his own day, and as it will that 
of all generations in which like conditions reap- 
pear. The doctrine of justification by faith is 
true always, and influences some men in every 
age ; but it is a particular expression of the more 
fundamental and universal truth of the forgive- 
ness of sins Such an age as our own, certainly 
in no danger of overemphasized legalism, will be 
more quickly and deeply reached by the original 
doctrine of forgiveness. 

The apostles were thus the first theologians of 
the church: the first to mediate the gospel of 
Jesus to local conditions of culture, although it is 
true that even they did not do this in systematic 
form. This conception does not militate in the 
least against the idea of their divine inspiration, 



OF THE GOSPEL 193 

but rather strengthens it. They were God-ap- 
pointed and God-inspired men for the great task 
of giving Christianity its first organized applica- 
tion to the world's life. Their inspiration did 
for them two things. In the first place, it led 
them to understand Christ's gospel. "The Holy 
Spirit," said Jesus, "shall testify of me; he shall 
take the things of mine, and shall show them 
unto you; he shall bring to your remembrance 
all things which I have spoken unto you." The 
promise was kept. It was not a different gospel 
that they preached, as uninspired theologians 
have so often done, but the gospel of Jesus, 
apprehended by spiritual inspiration. In the 
second place, their inspiration helped them to 
present the gospel in forms that were effectual 
in saving the men whom they addressed. "The 
Holy Spirit shall give you utterance," Christ had 
promised. " Ye shall receive power, when the 
Holy Spirit is come upon you ; and ye shall be 
my witnesses." These promises also were ful- 
filled : "They were all filled with the Holy 
Spirit, and began to speak .... as the Spirit 
gave them utterance." " They were all filled 
with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of 
God with boldness," and with success, it may 
now truthfully be added. Thus, with the apostles, 
theology was practical in its aim and method; 
they were first of all preachers — and theologians 



194 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

only because the gospel required local adapta- 
tions for successful preaching. The understand- 
ing of the gospel of Jesus, and power to present 
that gospel convincingly to their generation— 
that was apostolic inspiration, and indicates the 
divine mission and method of theology. Would 
that later theologians had always followed the 
inspired precedent! 

We see herein what loyalty to the New Testa- 
ment involves. It does not consist in taking the 
apostles' terminology, formed to meet concrete 
historical conditions, and binding this upon all 
ages ; but in following their method, and so doing 
for our age what they did for theirs : finding the 
thought of Jesus, and adapting it to existing 
needs. In what respect, then, do the New Testa- 
ment epistles have special value? Because of the 
unique position of the New Testament writers. 
Their inspiration differs from all later inspiration 
in historical connections. They were either imme- 
diately acquainted with Jesus, or with the men who 
knew him well. They had peculiar and untransfer- 
able opportunities for understanding his gospel in 
its substance and spirit. Thus the New Testament 
applications of the gospel constitute, so to speak, 
a book of religious decisions, of incalculable pre- 
cedential value. The apostolic writings, there- 
fore, while being in the form of special messages 
to definite churches and individuals, are of the 



OF THE GOSPEL 195 

nature of a constitution for later generations, 
somewhat as the judicial decisions of English 
courts constitute a large part of the English consti- 
tution. By means of these first inspired concrete 
apostolic decisions, we are able to understand, as 
would be possible in no other way, the nature of 
the gospel which they received from Jesus. All 
new legislation for the needs of succeeding 
ages must be in harmony with this underlying 
New Testament teaching. The New Testament 
is therefore the inspired and permanent constitu- 
tion of Christianity, existing partly in universal 
form, as given by Jesus, and partly in particular 
inspired precedential decisions and applications, 
as handed down by the apostles. 

The New Testament literature is subject to 
the usual canons of historical and literary criti- 
cism. But, like other literature, it also is to be 
judged according to the purpose and spirit of its 
writers. That is, it is to be judged as religious 
literature, not as theological or scientific writing, 
in the modern sense. As such, its truths must 
be spiritually discerned, in order to be appreci- 
ated. A scientific exegesis of the Bible cannot 
be made without the reverent religious study 
demanded by the nature of the writings. Only 
a Christian can be a scientific Bible critic. The 
New Testament is likewise to have equal rights 
of credence with other literary and historical 



196 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

writings, and not to be discounted because of its 
peculiar subject-matter. 

So criticised and judged by fair tests, in the 
New Testament the life of Jesus stands out 
clearly in its main historical outlines, as do also 
his teachings in their fundamental principles. 
This is sufficient. The salvation of the world 
rests upon him. If we are reasonably cer- • 
tain of him, Christianity as a world-religion 
is secure. 1 It is well for us to look at 
the subject in its large outlines, at times, and 
realize that Christianity does not depend upon 
proving that no errors exist in the Bible, or even 
in the New Testament, but that it depends solely 
upon Jesus Christ ; of whom the New Testament 
is a reasonably authentic presentation, both as re- 
gards his life and his teachings. This Scriptural 
and common-sense view of the New Testament 
will save the church from two dangerous ex- 
tremes. On the one hand, realizing that the 
Bible is not the foundation of Christianity, the 
church will lose all fear of historical and literary 
criticism of the Scriptures, and will have no need 
to put a premium upon uncritical faith. Changes 
of view, or discovery of discrepancies, will not 
vitally affect faith ; while a proof-text Christian- 
ity is always in mortal terror. The New Testa- 
ment in its main contents is well established, 
*See again Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxvi. 



OF THE GOSPEL 197 

and makes Jesus known clearly enough so that 
we can rest our faith upon him. The historical 
and ever-living Christ thus becomes the basis of 
a perennial Christianity. On the other hand, re- 
alizing the unique and regulative character of the 
New Testament literature, the church will not at- 
tempt to depart from its historical foundations, 
but will come back again and again to the New 
Testament as the standard by which to test its 
life in every age. 

3. The requirements of Christ's thought, as 
recorded in the New Testament, are met by 
the following definition of the gospel, which 
constitutes the subject-matter of theology : The 
gospel is the glad news of salvation from sin and its 
consequences ; this salvation consisting in eternal life, 
mediated from God to men by Jesus Christ, and ex- 
pressing its social relations in a kingdom of God. 

II. JESUS CHRIST, THE MEDIATOR OF ETERNAL 
LIFE. 

Inasmuch as it is through Jesus of Nazareth 
that we know the nature and conditions of salva- 
tion, receive the Christian conception of God and 
the world, and enter into communion with the 
Father, it is most fitting that theology should be- 
gin with the consideration of him and his work. 

The mission of Jesus. — The mission of Jesus 
was to bring men into the blessings of eternal 



198 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

life, by bringing eternal life into them. In this 
he acted in complete sympathy with the Father's 
desires and purposes. By entering fully into the 
life of humanity, he knew its griefs and bore 
them ; by suffering with men, he made known 
the Father's divine love and compassion ; by 
renouncing sin in himself, and denouncing it in 
others, he brought to light its inner nature, and 
God's eternal antagonism to it. Jesus forced 
upon men a new conception and conviction of sin, 
and made them hate wickedness ; he gave them 
a new vision of God, and made them love him ; 
he set in operation new motives, and gave men 
power to actualize their new ideals. These 
things that he did in his life he did in a pro- 
founder way by his death, in which he endured 
the last measure of vicarious suffering, sealed 
with his blood the truths that he had taught, 
and made atonement for mankind. 

Thus the life of Jesus, culminating in his sac- 
rificial death, made manifest in eternal antithesis 
the incarnate essence both of love and of sin. As 
a judgment of sin, the atonement is a demonstra- 
tion of the justice of God ; although Jesus him- 
self never so speaks of it, and the expression is 
used only once in the New Testament. The later 
theological dogma of the death of Jesus as an 
appeasing of the wrath of God, and consequent 
satisfaction of his justice by commercial equiva- 



OF THE GOSPEL 199 

lent, is absolutely foreign to Christ's thought. 
There can be little doubt that a certain school 
of theology has committed a double injustice : 
it has visited the punishment of the guilty upon 
the innocent, thus doing violence to morality; 
and it has first exacted payment for a debt, and 
then declared that God forgives it, thus doing 
violence to equity. As we turn from traditional 
theology to Christ, we find that what it calls the 
atonement, although not so designated by him, 
still is no myth. But here its real nature appears. 
Not only does the atonement meet the require- 
ments of God's justice, but it is even more a 
manifestation of the divine love, suffering with 
and for sinners, in order that it may save them. 
This is the inner meaning of the death of Christ, 
and we shall not be true to his thought until 
we return to it. Love cannot save except by en- 
tering into the condition of the one to be saved, 
and vicariously bearing his sorrow and even his 
sin. The cross of Christ, while not divorced 
from considerations of justice, is yet pre-eminently 
the divine manifestation of this truth ; rather, 
it is the incarnate doing of this divine thing, in 
order that the world may be made to feel God's 
heart so as to accept his help. 

This great truth cannot be permitted to die 
along with untenable theories of the atonement 
which men may make and overthrow. Neither 



200 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

should our acceptance of the fact be prejudiced 
by the unsatisfactoriness of the theory. The 
gospel stops with the fact of the atonement. 
Apart from theory, back of theory, is the divine 
fact that Jesus entered into the world as the repre- 
sentative of God, and by his life and by his death 
in our behalf brought God's salvation to men. 
The Bible always presents the subject, not for 
theoretical purposes, but with the practical aim 
of bringing men to God. Holding to these state- 
ments in the spirit in which they were given, a 
man is left free to combine them into such a 
speculative philosophical theory as to his mind 
most satisfactorily explains them, or to leave 
them unexplained by any theory, if he so choose. 
For a thousand years after the death of Jesus 
the church had no systematic doctrine of the 
atonement, the constructive theories beginning 
with Anselm. A thousand years hence the pres- 
ent theories will have developed into more ade- 
quate expression of the truth. All theories are 
fragmentary and partial. The moral theory, the 
governmental theory, the substitutionary theory, 
the vicarious theory — all of these contain truth, 
and some of them more than others ; but the 
atonement itself is greater and richer and truer 
than any or all of them. We rest our hope upon 
the fact itself, not upon men's attempted explana- 
tion of it. Theories of the atonement are sure to 



OF THE GOSPEL 201 

change with the growing thought of the race, and 
should do so ; the fact of the atonement abides 
the same forever. 

The person of Christ. — Probably the church 
has been justified in always placing the person of 
Christ before his work. Is he such a person as 
can accomplish the divine task he has under- 
taken? is a question of fundamental importance. 
The Christian conception of this person, however, 
should be determined for us, not by what men 
thought concerning the matter in the fourth 
century, but by what the New Testament says 
about him and by what we may justly infer from 
this. 

What did Jesus teach about himself ? Although 
he does not give the answer to this question in 
any dogmatic form, his own idea is nevertheless 
plain. He is the perfect Man, fully identified 
with humanity both in constitution and in life 
— tempted, suffering, sympathizing, serving, liv- 
ing the normal human life without sin. But he 
is uniquely related to God, so intimately and fully 
that he can say with truth, "I and my Father 
are one." He is the Christ, the authorized mes- 
senger of the Father, the revelation of his will. 
He is the mediator of salvation, the way to God 
and to life, the Savior of men. He was with the 
Father before the world existed, knows fully the 
Father's heart and shares his life. " My Father" 



202 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

— how much this means to Jesus ! It certainly 
involves an identity with God that is sui generis. 
He demands of all who would have life unfalter- 
ing loyalty to himself. He will be with them in 
spiritual presence and power after his resurrec- 
tion and ascension. He will come, at last, in 
glory to judge the world. 

The thought of the apostles concerning the 
person of Christ contains the same elements 
found in the teaching of Jesus : he is for them 
also the perfect man and the divine Lord. More 
emphasis is perhaps placed by them upon his 
divine attributes and dignity, but not to the ex- 
clusion of a real humanity. It is evident that 
aside from these two strong convictions, opinions 
concerning his person were still in a fluid and un- 
formed state. They had not yet crystallized. 
The prologue of John's gospel, the second chap- 
ter of Philippians, and the epistle to the Hebrews 
look toward a more reasoned treatment of the 
person of Christ, but the religious interest even 
here completely dominates the speculative. The 
time of definitions had not come ; it was rather a 
time of love and loyalty. 

What are we therefore to think of Christ ? 
Here arise the questions relating to christological 
presuppositions. These are not of such an ex- 
clusively metaphysical character as has generally 
been assumed in the past. Christ's significance 



OF THE GOSPEL 203 

is chiefly of a religious nature. Religiously, 
he has the value of God ; that is, the man who 
starts with him finds God. He that hath seen 
Christ hath seen the Father. This is plain, both 
from Jesus' teaching and from human experience. 
But it is of importance to note that, when Jesus 
so speaks, he always speaks religiously, not meta- 
physically. Nothing can be more evident. This 
religious value can be accepted, and the resulting 
blessedness of communion with God enjoyed, 
even though the metaphysical relation should 
never be understood. 

More than this, no metaphysical explanation 
at all is greatly to be preferred to one which 
stands in the way of the full influence of Christ's 
religious and ethical power. The early church 
attempted to express the truth about Christ in 
the Logos doctrine, and in the Chalcedonian 
dogma of the two natures in one person. For 
some this explanation is still satisfactory. Others 
may, perhaps, express it more satisfactorily for 
themselves in some other form, or may not suc- 
ceed in finding any adequate explanation. If the 
old statement obscures for us the great truths 
that Jesus declared about himself, rather than 
explains and enforces them, it may legitimately 
be dismissed. We are not bound by the theo- 
logical findings of the later church, but only by 
the gospel facts. All metaphysical statements 



204 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

of Christ's nature are beyond the range of his 
own teaching, and hence are binding only upon 
those who make them, or find it helpful to ac- 
cept them. At the present time satisfactory 
christological statements seem to be far in the 
future. It is probable that we shall not be able 
to formulate them until we know more about what 
man is. At least it is safe to say that in the com- 
ing statement psychology will have more influ- 
ence, and metaphysics less. 

Meanwhile Christ's perfect oneness with the 
Father and with man, in the sense in which he 
taught it, making it possible for him to be the 
full revelation of God's ethical nature, and the 
divine Savior of men, lies at the very basis of 
the Christian salvation and hope. As Paul puts 
it: "God was in Christ reconciling the world un- 
to himself." The church cannot give up this plain 
gospel truth without losing its power and abandon- 
ing its mission. In a real sense Jesus Christ was 
the incarnation of God. He belongs to the inner 
circle of God's being and has expressed this in 
a real human personality. This is the truth con- 
tended for in the old christological creeds, and is 
the priceless heritage bequeathed by them to us. 
When the new christological formulations are 
made they must not be permitted to rob us 
of it. 



OF THE GOSPEL 205 

III. GOD THE AUTHOR AND SOURCE OF ETERNAL 
LIFE. 

The Christian God is the heavenly Father 
revealed by Jesus Christ. Theology has too long 
occupied itself with a Greek philosophical deity 
and a Roman governor of the universe. It is 
time that now, at last, we let Christ interpret the 
God of Christianity. He is a personal, spiritual 
God, requiring a true and spiritual worship. He 
is a righteous God, who so loves the world that 
he has done, and is doing, all that he can to re- 
deem it from sin, not hesitating to give his only 
begotten Son to make known his forgotten love, 
and to show his holy nature that cannot tolerate 
sin. He is watching for the return of his prodi- 
gal sons with all of a Father's anxious solicitude, 
and goes to meet them on the way. If Jesus 
did not teach the universal fatherhood of God 
directly, he certainly taught a universal love and 
care which are paternal in kind. 

Yet with those who repent of their sin and 
turn to him through Christ, God comes into special 
relations as Father, because they acknowledge 
their sonship. Only for the loving and dutiful 
son can a father accomplish his heart's desires. 
God gives these penitent sinners power, or 
authority, to become his sons in a special sense. 
They come into new relations of endearment to 
him. He who watches over the growing lilies 



zo6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

and the homeless birds cares so minutely for his 
own children that the very hairs of their heads 
are numbered. Those who trust him come into 
vital union with him, and so receive eternal life, 
and can never perish. He is Sovereign of the 
universe and of the kingdom of God, but his sover- 
eignty is exercised according to eternal principles 
of righteousness and love which pertain to his es- 
sential nature. If he is absolute Sovereign, he is 
not therefore arbitrary Sovereign : his rule is 
still absolutely merciful and righteous. 

This holy God is spiritual in his activity. The 
Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God, is God dwelling 
in his church, in individual Christians, and, to a 
less extent, in the world at large : guiding and 
comforting and inspiring those who receive and 
yield to him ; moving to repentance those who 
are living in sin. 

Concerning God, also, there are doubtless 
theological presuppositions of great importance. 
While, if we are to be tru^e to Christ's thought, 
the ethical and religious nature of God will be 
given precedence over his metaphysical attributes, 
yet God's metaphysical being and his relation to 
the creation and continuance of the universe must 
also be considered. At this point theology comes 
into intimate touch with, and dependence upon, 
the philosophical systems of the day, where the 
problem is being scientifically and progressively 



OF THE GOSPEL 207 

worked out. Probably the chief task of theology 
in this connection is not so much the establish- 
ment of any one philosophy as it is the criticism of 
all systems, and the rejection of those that are not 
able to express the distinctive Christian truths of 
God's personality and free providential activity. 
Within these limits the widest latitude may be 
given. So far as Christianity is concerned, it can 
tolerate any philosophical system that is congenial 
with its religious ideas. The absolute philosophy 
has not been reached, and never will be. Chris- 
tianity may well use existing systems so far as 
they will help it to gain a stronger hold on the 
world's thought, but should not ally itself too 
closely with any one of them. 

IV. MAN THE RECIPIENT OF ETERNAL LIFE. 

God's provision of eternal life is made for the 
human race, and for individual members of this 
race. Theology, therefore, must consider the 
nature, capabilities, and life of man. 

The origin and nature of man. — Here we 
have to do more with anthropological presuppo- 
sitions than with direct Christian teaching. 

1. Christ has nothing to say about the his- 
torical origin of man, and therefore Christianity 
is committed to no special theory concerning 
the matter, not even the Old Testament theory, 
except in its religious aspects, at most. The 



208 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

Jewish theological implications are not a com- 
ponent part of Christianity. The question of 
the origin of man is not of vital interest or im- 
portance. In the place which it has given to 
the subject, theology has marked one of its 
departures from its proper task. If the matter 
had been of special significance, Jesus would not 
have passed it over without comment. With his 
deep insight and his practical mission, he took 
the world as he found it, and man as an already 
existing being. Man is here. How he came to 
be here is not of much account for religion. The 
important problem is : What is he going to do 
with himself now that he is here, and what is he 
going to make of himself for the future ? 

As Christianity is not committed to any one 
theory concerning the origin of humanity, neither 
is it concerning the much-discussed question of 
the origin of the individual soul. Whether the 
theory of pre-existence advocated by Origen 
be true; or that of creationism, which has found 
able advocates ; or that of traducianism, as 
adopted by Augustine ; or any other that may be 
advanced — the New Testament does not say. 
Christianity is not committed to any of them, 
and no theory is of fundamental importance. We 
may well await the further progress of knowledge 
for our philosophy regarding the question, or rele- 
gate it to the realm of life's insoluble mysteries. 



OF THE GOSPEL 209 

2. It is different with reference to the nature 
of man. While the question of historical origin 
is not connected with salvation, the constitution 
or nature of man is necessarily and most inti- 
mately concerned with it. Here, therefore, 
Christianity is more explicit. 

In the first place, humanity is an organism : 
the various members are vitally related. In 
Christ's doctrine of human brotherhood, in Paul's 
doctrine of the headship of Adam — all through 
the New Testament this idea is taken for 
granted. There is very little said about the 
exact nature of this relationship, but the practi- 
cal fact remains, a fact everywhere apparent in 
life, and receiving special emphasis in our own 
times, that the human race is organically united. 
No man liveth unto himself. The sins of a father 
are visited upon his children. Heredity and en- 
vironment are index fingers pointing forever to 
the organic nature of humanity. 

In the second place, man is created in the 
image of God. Not merely he was, but he is 
now so created ; every man is. This is the 
religious truth expressed in the Bible account of 
creation. The point at issue is not so much the 
historical origin as the permanent constitution of 
man. Humanity is godlike in nature. Sin did 
not change this, and cannot. The proof is that 
after many ages God entered into this same 



zio RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 
The incarnation is an abiding demonstration of 
the fundamental godlikeness of human nature. 
Sin has" distorted and dimmed this divine ele- 
ment in man, but not eliminated it. His very 
rational being is bound up with it. The yearn- 
ings and aspirations of the human heart are the 
stirrings of the divinity within us. The theo- 
logical doctrine of total depravity is found 
neither in Scripture nor in human nature. It is 
this remnant of divinity in men that makes them 
redeemable. It is this to which God calls, and 
which answers to his long-forgotten voice. It is 
this which gave to Jesus his unfaltering faith in 
human nature and his hope for the most aban- 
doned sinner. 

Yet, in spite of his divine constitution, man is 
a sinner, both by voluntary act and by nature. 
Jesus' whole attitude toward men is governed by 
his perception of the ruin wrought by sin. He 
does not say much about man's lost condition, and 
he offers no theory explaining how it came to be, 
but he everywhere assumes it and acts with it in 
view. The apostles are equally emphatic, and 
even more explicit: "All have sinned and come 
short of the glory of God." "There is none 
righteous, no, not one." And because of the or- 
ganic nature of humanity, involving vital rela- 
tionship and hereditary bias, the predisposition 



OF THE GOSPEL zn 

to sin is passed on from father to son. Men be- 
long to a sinful race and inherit a nature prone 
to evil. There is, however, no teaching in Scrip- 
ture that upon the basis of this sinful inher- 
itance, and apart from voluntary wrong-doing, 
are guilt and condemnation pronounced upon a 
man. 

These three truths — the organic character 
of humanity, man's fundamental godlikeness, 
and his sinful nature and deeds — are the impor- 
tant Scripture teachings about the nature of 
man. They may well receive consideration at 
the hands of those who are trying to under- 
stand man by scientific study. But anthro- 
pology and psychology, in the proper scientific 
sense of those terms, are not matters of divine 
revelation. The facts concerning human nature 
must be sought for as any other knowledge. 
Here, as in the philosophical idea of God, theol- 
ogy is dependent upon science — in this case upon 
psychology — for its material; and part of its 
task is to preserve these three great truths, and 
reject any psychology that is hostile to them, 
rather than to identify itself absolutely with any 
current theory. 

The origin and nature of sin. — As with the 
historical origin of the human race, so also con- 
cerning the origin of sin, Christ has nothing to 
say, and Christianity is bound to no theory. 



212 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

Again Jesus adopts a practical attitude, and 
takes the position that when a man is in danger 
the problem is not how he got into it, but how 
to get him out. 

But it is relevant and necessary to ask what 
the character of the difficulty is. This must be 
known in order to suit the help to the emergency. 
So, while theology has no need to say any- 
thing whatever about the origin of sin, it does 
need to consider carefully the nature of sin. 
There is often confusion of thought on this 
point. It is sometimes said that it is necessary 
to know how man got into sin in order to save 
him from it. As a matter of fact, it is not the 
origin, but the nature, of his lost condition that 
needs to be understood. Men are here, actual 
sinners in a world of sin. What is sin? This 
was the question that Jesus asked and answered; 
and this is the question, therefore, with which 
theology is concerned. 

The Old Testament idea of sin is that of dis- 
obedience to law ; Jesus' idea is that it is love- 
lessness, or selfishness. Supreme love to God is 
man's highest privilege and duty. Nothing else 
than this will satisfy God, or realize man's true 
being and destiny. The greatest sin is the break- 
ing of this greatest commandment. Sin is there- 
fore not so much in acting as in failure to act ; 
not so much in doing concrete wrongs as in fail- 



OF THE GOSPEL 213 

ure to do the great right. The second require- 
ment, like unto the first, is that men should love 
each other as they love themselves. The second 
great sin, also, is therefore a not doing — failure 
to love. The nature of sin is the same in both 
cases : it is lovelessness. It is a matter of the 
disposition or character. All particular sins are 
the result of this underlying sin. On the other 
hand, love to God and man fulfils the whole 
law : concrete acts of right are the result of this 
fundamental right. This was the new and unique 
element in Jesus' teaching concerning sin and 
righteousness. He reduced them both to their 
lowest terms and brought out their elementary 
principles. 

V. THE NATURE AND CONDITIONS OF ETERNAL 
LIFE. 

Such being the nature of man and the nature 
of sin, Jesus set about saving him from sin. The 
essence of this salvation is eternal life. " I came," 
said Jesus, "that they may have life, and may 
have it abundantly." "I am the way, the truth, 
and the life." "I am the resurrection and the 
life : he that believeth on me, though he die, yet 
shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth 
on me shall never die." "He that believeth on 
the Son hath eternal life." 

The nature of eternal life. — This life is of 



214 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

the same kind as God's, it is spiritual, eternal, 
holy. It is therefore independent in nature — 
although, as we shall see, not in expression — 
of the world of sense about us. It lies back 
of the world, within it, and above it, giving to 
the world meaning and value. It has its own 
laws, in the keeping of which is the continuance 
of its blessings. Everlasting life is the gift of 
God, the gift of himself. It consists in the abiding 
communion with men that guarantees the con- 
tinued bestowal of his Spirit and his power. Thus 
intimately united with him, it is eternal in its na- 
ture, as he is eternal. And as God is holy, 
and cannot have fellowship with sin, this life is 
a holy life; all who are to live in communion 
with God must take his attitude toward sin 
both in themselves and as it exists in the world. 
44 Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is per- 
fect." 

Entrance into eternal life. — Eternal life is 
entered by spiritual birth. Christ's thought here 
is the same as that more fully elaborated by 
Paul. Man is born of the earth, and is carnal ; 
to be carnally minded is death The man who 
is not in vital communion with God is dead, 
and does not know life. He must be born again, 
from above, of the Spirit. As man must be 
born once of human parents in order to enter 
into earthly life, so must he be born again, of the 



OF THE GOSPEL 215 

Spirit, in order to enter into the eternal spiritual 
life. 

This new birth is conditioned upon repent- 
ance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ. As God 
is eternally opposed to sin, and eternal life is 
a life of holiness, sin must be left behind when 
one applies for entrance into life. Repentance is 
this very thing : it is a determined turning from 
sin to the full extent of one's power. It, how- 
ever, does not give assurance of success, for it 
can supply no power to conquer sin. It is nega- 
tive and preparatory. Actual deliverance from 
sin is assured only by faith, the positive comple- 
ment of repentance. Because of the religious 
value of Christ, faith in him puts a man into 
touch with the spiritual forces of God, and so 
brings these forces to bear upon him in cleans- 
ing and saving power. That is why whosoever 
believes on the Son has eternal life ; not merely 
as a future hope, but as a present reality. He 
has already come into touch with God, the source 
of life. 

From this is evident Christ's conception of 
the nature of faith. Faith is not, and cannot be, 
a matter of assent to a set of propositions which 
are regarded as embodying the true philosophy. 
It is not so much an intellectual as a religious 
act. It presupposes intellectual conviction, 
doubtless, but adds to this the loyal and loving 



216 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

trust of the heart. And not only is it religious 
in its nature, but in its object also, being directed 
toward a person whom it has come to regard as 
the one who can save from sin. The confidence 
and trust in this person necessarily involve be- 
lief in what he says and the purpose to obey 
his commandments. Thus Christian faith is a 
sure confidence in Jesus as Savior; a humble, 
trustful reliance upon him and upon the God 
whom he reveals ; together with a willing and 
teachable spirit which seeks to know the will of 
Jesus in order to obey it. A man having such a 
faith God can save and bring into eternal life; 
for he can teach him his will and communicate 
to him his power. 

The spiritual birth, conditioned on man's part 
by repentance and faith, is accompanied on God's 
part by the forgiveness of sins. This is not 
merely the remission of the penalty of sin, nor 
a forensic declaration of justification, but a real 
forgiveness of sin itself and the reception of the 
sinner into fellowship with God. It is no com- 
mercial barter, but a free act of divine grace. 
The wanderer has returned, the sinner has re- 
pented and sought forgiveness, the new germ of 
life has been implanted assuring deadly antago- 
nism to sin and certain victory over it. What 
more does God want ? Nothing. He welcomes 
his repentant son with absolute forgiveness. 



OF THE GOSPEL 217 

In spite of its tragic sadness, and our desire 
to escape the conclusion, it yet remains true, in 
the very nature of the case, that those who re- 
fuse to comply with these conditions continue in 
death. There is no life except upon the fulfil- 
ment of certain conditions. Jesus does not say 
that it is desirable that men should be born 
again, but, "Ye must be born again." Unless a 
man comes into living touch with God, he can- 
not see life, and the righteous indignation of God 
rests upon him. God does not condemn a man 
for being born with a sinful nature and into a 
sinful heritage. That is his misfortune, not his 
fault, and evokes in God only a sympathetic de- 
sire to deliver him. The basis of God's condem- 
nation is man's continuance in his sinful estate 
when deliverance is offered him. "This is the 
condemnation, that light is come into the world, 
and men loved darkness rather than light." If a 
man chooses to remain in darkness and death, he 
is himself responsible for the consequences. God 
sent his Son, not to condemn the world, but that 
the world through him might be saved. If it 
rejects him, it pronounces its own condemnation. 
Nothing else could by any possibility result. 

Christ's thought concerning life and death is 
here manifest. Life is union with God ; death is 
the absence of this life. Both are present reali- 
ties rather than future possibilities, although 



2i 8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

each has its future culmination. As long as 
a man is away from God he is dead. If he 
remains away forever, he forever remains in 
death, and the wrath of God abides upon him 
forever. If there is endless punishment, it is be- 
cause of endless sin. As to whether a man will 
continue thus forever in sin the language of 
Scripture is thought by some not to be abso- 
lutely explicit, although to the plain reader it 
would seem to teach everlasting punishment. 
We know, moreover, that the conditions upon 
which eternal life may be had will not change, 
and that the tendency of character is to pro- 
gressive fixedness. That in course of time it will 
become in a given man so fixed as to make re- 
pentance practically impossible is certainly the 
more probable conclusion. 

The continuance of life. — Faith in Jesus is not 
merely the condition of entrance into eternal 
life; it is likewise the condition of continuance 
and growth. Sometimes faith is virtually lim- 
ited to the beginning of the Christian life. Such 
a text as, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
thou shalt be saved," is taken as referring to 
one act, to be performed at a given time, and all 
is completed. There is willingness to trust 
Christ for the forgiveness of sins, but no real idea 
of trusting him for power to live by. This 
accounts for the large number of men and women 



OF THE GOSPEL 219 

who have tried Christianity and made a failure 
of it. Having entered into life they attempted 
to go forward by themselves, and lost touch with 
the source of power. It is also the secret of 
the undeveloped Christian possibilities which 
everywhere are found. There is a false concep- 
tion of faith. Faith is the teachable, humble, 
trusting spirit, the spirit turned Godward. It is 
the confident, courageous, hopeful, working 
spirit. It is not the highest thing in the Chris- 
tian life, but is an indispensable condition of the 
highest and best. The continuance of life and 
its progressive develoment depend upon favor- 
able environment as truly in the spiritual world 
as in the natural. God is the environment of 
spiritual growth. By faith we come into living 
contact with that environment. Not merely for 
spiritual birth is faith necessary, but " the life 
which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith." 

Another thing involved in faith is loyalty to 
Jesus Christ throughout the whole course of life. 
There is no true faith which does not include the 
spirit of obedience. Separate acts of obedience 
are the fruit of faith ; but the will to obey 
is a part of faith itself. Here again we find 
a secret of the superficial and fruitless Chris- 
tianity which is so prevalent. Another kind of 
faith than that of the New Testament has been 
in vogue — a faith which has not realized that to 



22o RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

be a Christian means honest, determined, perma- 
nent loyalty to Jesus as Lord of daily living as 
well as Savior from death. Salvation involves so 
complete a change that it is no less a thing than 
death to the old life of selfishness and resurrection 
to a new life in which Christ shall rule ; a life in 
which every question is to be answered as Jesus 
would answer it, every thought tested by his 
thought, every act governed by his law of life. 
We are to live as he lived. " If ye love me, ye 
will keep my commandments," said Jesus. "If 
any man would be my disciple, let him deny 
himself, and take up his cross and follow me." 
To take up our cross does not mean to do hard 
things ; it means to do the one great thing — 
to crucify self. As Jesus did, so are we to do, be 
crucified, that we may follow him in self-sacri- 
ficing service. To be a Christian is to be Christ's 
man ; nothing else, nothing less. 

The continued life of faith, involving vital 
touch with God and loyal allegiance to Jesus, 
will be a sanctified life ; that is, a life set apart 
for sacred purposes, and becoming progressively 
holy. This is the New Testament idea of sanctifi- 
cation. When a man becomes a Christian he 
becomes a partner with God for the accomplish- 
ment of God's holy aims. But the vessel so 
set apart must be cleansed. Christians ought to 
be progressively overcoming sin. Sin should 



OF THE GOSPEL 221 

have less dominion today than yesterday, less 
tomorrow than today Do we not almost ignore 
God's promise not to permit us to be tempted 
above that we are able to bear, but with every 
temptation to provide a way of escape ? Have 
we not overlooked Jesus' injunction to be perfect 
as our heavenly Father is perfect ? Have we not 
failed to lay to heart the truth declared by John 
that the man born of God cannot keep on sin- 
ning ? The fact that the New Testament doctrine 
of sanctification has sometimes been misunder- 
stood and brought into disrepute does not vitiate 
the truth of it, nor make less binding the obliga- 
tion on the part of God's people to rise to a 
higher plane of living. As men live by faith 
they will receive both the motive and the power 
to conquer sin. 

The result and reward of eternal life. — 
These are to be found, not outside, but within, in 
Christlike character. In earthly life the highest 
reward is more life, something that will make life 
richer and deeper. So it is with eternal life. All 
figures and illustrations used in the Bible bring 
out this truth. The reward of eternal life is more 
eternal life — an increased capacity and increased 
opportunities for life. " To him that hath shall 
be given," is the law of reward. 

This reward is the legitimate and logical result 
of the Christian life. As living in the realm of 



222 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

eternal life involves increasing holiness, so the 
final result is holiness. Or is there any final 
result ? It is rather an endless process of growth 
and perfection. The new life itself is its own re- 
ward. The progressive character of the Christian 
prize does not, however, imply continued sin. Im- 
maturity and imperfection are not sin. They 
become sinful only when the process of develop- 
ment is arrested. A condition which is sinless 
today becomes sinful tomorrow, because one 
ought to have outgrown it and has not. We 
have reason to hope that for the Christian the 
time will come when growth will progress with- 
out sin. This involves Christlike character, the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus 
our Lord, full of infinite possibilities and unspeak- 
able delight. 

VI. ETERNAL LIFE AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

So far we have been considering the essential 
nature of the Christian salvation. We have 
found that it consists in eternal life, mediated 
from God to men through Jesus Christ. We 
now come to another aspect of the matter. 
Eternal life does not remain an isolated phe- 
nomenon, affecting only God and individual 
men, but enters into social relations and or- 
ganizes a new community, the kingdom of 
God. Sociology, therefore, at least in some of 



OF THE GOSPEL 223 

its bearings, must be considered by Christian 
theology. 

The organic nature of the kingdom of God. — 
The very idea of a kingdom involves life. In 
the kingdom of God the eternal life which we 
have been discussing is the life to be organized. 
This life is first ; not first a kingdom, and then 
life put into it; but there is first spiritual life, 
which then brings its subjects into social rela- 
tions, and so organizes for itself a kingdom. 
The kingdom of God is therefore organic; it 
is a living thing, not artificial and mechanical. 
That is to say, it is built up, not from without, 
but from within ; it is not a governmental de- 
vice, but a family-kingdom, with all which that 
involves. This truth is one of great importance 
for an adequate understanding of the kingdom of 
God, and will save us from many theological pit- 
falls. 

Relations within the kingdom of God. — Inas- 
much as eternal life is the life of the kingdom, 
we may justly expect that its various aspects 
will find expression here. Since these have 
already been discussed, nothing more is needed 
with reference to many of them save to indicate 
their mutual relations. 

1. God, the Author and Source of eternal 
life, is Sovereign in the kingdom of God. He is 
absolute Sovereign. In him the kingdom, with 



224 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

all within it, has its being. It is a transcript of 
his nature, the revelation of himself. But be- 
cause the kingdom is a family-kingdom, God is 
Father as well as Sovereign, and has all of a 
father's love and care for his subjects, who are 
also sons. When we say that God is absolute 
Sovereign, therefore, it does not imply that he 
can act arbitrarily, or in a different way from the 
wise way he has chosen. God, as a being of 
ethical perfection, is impelled to the wisest and 
most beneficent course of action possible in 
every case; not from outside compulsion, but 
because he is the God he is. 

2. Jesus, the Mediator of Eternal Life, is, by 
virtue of his position, the Founder of the king- 
dom of God on earth, and the Vicegerent 
of God in the kingdom. He is the anointed 
King, the " Messiah." Jesus made the law of 
the kingdom his own, and fulfilled it in his life 
on earth. In so doing he gave the kingdom 
a place in the world, and around him it has 
built itself up. He thereby also became its Law- 
giver and Ruler. For him to speak is for God 
to speak, because he has made God's thought 
and will his own. At the same time, Jesus was 
so completely identified with human life that he 
belongs to the human race. He is a part of 
humanity, the elder Brother of many brethren. 
The kingdom thus has the advantage of a Ruler 



OF THE GOSPEL 225 

whom it can understand, for he speaks with 
a human voice; one whom it can trust and obey, 
for he speaks the thought of God, and with his 
authority. 

3. Those who, by faith in Jesus, have re- 
ceived eternal life are the subjects of the king- 
dom of God. Not all men are, although God 
wishes them to be. Those alone are subjects 
who participate in the eternal spiritual life of 
the kingdom. Men come into the kingdom of 
God as they come into eternal life, by a new 
spiritual birth. Repentance of sin and faith in 
Christ are therefore the conditions of entrance 
into the kingdom of God; and this entrance by 
way of the new birth is accompanied by the for- 
giveness of sins. 

By virtue of the family nature of the king- 
dom the subjects of God are also the sons of 
God, and are brethren among themselves ; as 
sons, fellow-subjects, and brethren, they come 
into social relations that are governed by the 
law of the kingdom, which we are now pre- 
pared to consider. 

The law of the kingdom. — There is only one 
law in the kingdom of God. All former laws 
are fulfilled in this, and all subsequent ones 
grow out of it. This law is love. God is love ; 
therefore love is supreme in the kingdom that 
is the expression of his nature. The law is not 



226 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

external, but organically and ineradicably bound 
up in the kingdom itself. It was this law which 
Jesus made his own and fulfilled in himself, 
becoming thus by right Lawgiver in the king- 
dom ; and it is now binding upon all who become 
partakers of divine life, and just because they 
become partakers. The new life within them 
is love, and must express itself according to the 
law of love. Love is the law, therefore, which 
regulates the community life in the kingdom of 
God. 

Perhaps the law needs no further definition ; 
we know what love is. Christ, however, does 
not use the word that expresses the love of kin- 
ship and of earthly affection, but that which ex- 
presses the principle of altruism. Christian love 
is grounded in admiration, veneration, or good 
will, rather than in sense and emotion ; it is a mat- 
ter of choice rather than of impulse ; and it involves 
an unselfish, altruistic desire for the well-being of 
others. 

The all-inclusive law of love needs to be 
adapted to the concrete circumstances of daily 
living. Jesus himself began this work. Just as 
white light may be separated by the prism into 
the many rays that compose it, so Jesus separated 
this one great commandment "to love" into the 
various commands that apply directly to exist- 
ing conditions. Only he always made it plain 



OF THE GOSPEL 227 

that these separate commands must continually be 
blending again into love, if character is to shine 
out with the clear Christian light. Aside from 
the intrinsic value of these special directions 
given by Jesus is their helpfulness as precedents 
for future adaptations of a similar kind. The 
apostles continued the work begun by Christ. 
Much of the value of their epistles lies just in this 
specific application of the law of the kingdom 
to the exigencies that arose as Christianity first 
came into contact with the secular world. The 
special conditions that called forth these letters 
have largely passed away, it is true; but the 
apostolic decisions help us both directly and in- 
directly better to understand the gospel and 
better to express it in concrete laws for present 
conditions. " Greet one another with a holy 
kiss," is a local commandment. But it helps us 
to realize more fully that the law of love does 
not permit Christian brethren to pass each other 
by with scant courtesy and averted looks. 

How the law of the kingdom is fulfilled. — This 
law of the kingdom, the law of love, is to be 
fulfilled in all the relationships of the king- 
dom. It is to be fulfilled toward God by un- 
anxious trust in him as the strong and wise 
and loving Father ; in the consciousness that 
he, on his part, fulfils the law toward men by 
caring for them. Christians are to go about 



228 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

their tasks as laborers together with God, mak- 
ing his will theirs, and choosing his purposes 
as ends that shall dominate and give meaning 
to all their work. So choosing, and so living, 
they are to work from day to day easily, with- 
out friction and without worry. Such an atti- 
tude toward God gives men right views of 
life, and lets them understand it in its true 
proportions. No human cure for restlessness 
can begin to compare with this clear view of 
the most important things in life and this calm 
trust in the heavenly Father. The law of love 
is not fulfilled toward him till his children thus 
trust him. If an earthly father can never be 
satisfied unless his child has confidence in him, 
much less can the heavenly Father, who wants 
men's loving trust above all things else in the 
universe. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart." Perfect love casts out fear 
and brings in trust. 

Christ has fulfilled the law of love toward 
us by the vicarious bearing of our griefs and 
sins, even unto death. He continues to fulfil 
it by still offering his companionship and com- 
fort, guidance and strength. On our part this 
law is to be fulfilled toward Christ by sin- 
cere faith and loving service, with all which 
these involve of confidence, trust, and obedience. 
"If ye love me, ye will keep my command- 



OF THE GOSPEL 229 

ments." But he does not require the service 
of slaves. He calls us no more servants, but 
friends. Hence the fulfilment of the law of love 
toward him involves an obedience that is ren- 
dered in the spirit of joyful and willing loyalty, 
not of fear. He is our companion and friend, 
to walk with us through the dark and hard 
places of life, as well as along the easy paths : 
"Lo, I am with you alway." Christian service 
can thus never degenerate into the perfunc- 
tory performance of duty. It is always glorified 
by love. "Though I bestow all my goods to 
feed the poor, and though I give my body to be 
burned, and have not love, it profiteth me noth- 
ing." 

The law of love is to be fulfilled among the 
fraternal subjects of the kingdom by mutual 
burden-bearing. "Bear ye one another's bur- 
dens, and so fulfil the law of Christ," says the 
apostle. The only way love has of truly express- 
ing itself is by burden-bearing. That was why 
Christ entered the life of humanity. God might 
have declared his love forever from the heavens, 
and the world would not have believed it, and 
would have given no heed. Christ proved his 
love, and God's, by becoming the world's burden- 
bearer, and himself fulfilling the law of the king- 
dom in that way. So also must the subjects 
fulfil the law of Christ. The judgment scene in 



2 3 o RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew here finds 
its significance, and does not need any far- 
fetched interpretation to satisfy theological exi- 
gencies. Men are judged by their deeds of help- 
fulness, because these deeds are the only real 
proof that they are dominated by the law of the 
kingdom. " By their fruits ye shall know them." 
The kingdom also comes into relations with 
the outside world. The same law is to govern 
its subjects there, even though it is not recipro- 
cated, but is met by the law of the world. God 
does not confine his love and care to the sub- 
jects of the kingdom. He makes his sun to 
shine on the evil and the good, and sends his 
rain alike upon the just and the unjust. He loves 
the world. He commended his love toward us 
in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for 
us. Jesus came, not to the righteous, but to 
sinners; the sick are the ones who need the 
physician. If God and Christ thus show their 
love outside the kingdom, so must the sub- 
jects also. The lawgiver of the kingdom him- 
self says: "Love your enemies, bless them that 
curse you, do good to them that hate you, 
and pray for them that despitefully use you and 
persecute you ; that ye may be children of your 
Father which is in heaven. If ye love them 
which love you, and salute your brethren only, 
what do ye more than the publicans ?" 



OF THE GOSPEL 231 

It is in this way that the nature and worth 
of the kingdom are to be impressed upon 
those who are without. As it was first estab- 
lished by Jesus in deeds, so is it to be propa- 
gated. There is no salvation divorced from 
love ; and here also it remains true that the only 
proof of love is in burden-bearing. If Chris- 
tians are to help men, they must suffer with 
them and for them. Protestations will never 
do it. Preaching alone will not do it. Jesus 
showed his love by deeds of mercy. Having 
thus proved it to men, he saved them by it. 
The church must awaken to this fact, if it is 
to impress the truth of the kingdom upon the 
world and bring men within its own realm. 
It will reach "the masses" when it goes about 
it in Jesus' way, and not till then. 

The subjects of the kingdom are to fulfil its 
law in their relations with the outside world, 
further, by uncompromising hostility to sin. 
Sin is humanity's greatest enemy. He who 
loves humanity most will fight sin hardest. He 
will fight it in himself and in others — wherever it 
shows its head. A man cannot be a loyal mem- 
ber of the kingdom of God, having the mind of 
Christ, dominated by love, and not take Christ's 
attitude of deadly conflict with sin. 

Again, the subjects of the kingdom are to 
fulfil its law by taking their place in the world's 



232 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

life and faithfully performing their obligations 
there. When a man enters the kingdom of 
God he does not thereby cease to belong to the 
kingdom of humanity. Humanity also is an 
organism, and each man is a component part. 
There are still the human relations of family and 
industrial and civic life to be fulfilled. "Let 
every man abide in the same calling wherein he 
was called," says the apostle to the subjects of 
the kingdom who would repudiate their larger 
human duties. If the church had remembered 
this truth its history would not have been so 
marked by outrage to common human nature. 
Neither should it now withdraw from the world 
and leave it to the devil. In the world of human 
life the conflict is to be waged and the kingdom's 
conquest won. 

The progress and consummation of the kingdom. 
— The considerations just adduced lead directly 
to the last topic to be discussed — the consumma- 
tion of the kingdom of God ; together with that 
which is intimately connected with, and results 
directly in, this final consummation, namely, the 
future progress of the kingdom. These two are 
inseparable parts of one movement. In order 
to see its significance let us look again, and a 
little more closely, at the relation existing be- 
tween the kingdom of God and the kingdom 
of the world. The kingdom of the world, or 



OF THE GOSPEL 233 

of humanity, is organic. No man is isolated, 
or can be. All men are bound together, not in 
artificial or mechanical union, to be broken at 
will, but by the common human life that has 
found expression in an organic community of 
all humanity. This old Scripture idea is re- 
ceiving an entirely new emphasis today through 
scientific sociology. But the kingdom of God 
also is an organism, its members being vitally 
related by means of the new divine life that they 
have received, and which has expressed itself in 
the community of the kingdom. Yet the mem- 
bers of this kingdom are also members of the 
kingdom of the world, thus constituting an organ- 
ism within an organism. 

Herein is disclosed the cause of the social 
ferment and the significance of the future course 
of the kingdom of God upon earth. However it 
came about, the kingdom of humanity has be- 
come the kingdom of the world, in which the 
supreme law is the law of selfishness, each man 
seeking his own isolated good, swayed by earthly 
passions, aiming at worldly gains, circumscribed 
by sensuous surroundings. Persistent strife for 
personal and selfish interests characterizes the 
world's life. We will freely and gladly admit 
that this law does not have free course, and that 
there are many instances in which the divine 
constitution of humanity asserts its latent power 



2 3 4 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

and breaks the law of selfishness. It still re- 
mains true, however, that this law is the dominat- 
ing one in the kingdom of the world. It is 
within this kingdom, and as a constituent part 
of it, because claiming its subjects while not 
detaching them, that the kingdom of God is 
organized, not only with new aims and a law of 
its own, but with aims and a law diametrically 
and eternally opposed to those of the world. 
The world-conflict is begun— a conflict inherent, 
inevitable, and to the death. 

It is easy to see this struggle between the laws 
of the two kingdoms in the individual, but it is 
also worth our while to understand the nature of 
the movement as a world-conflict of social forces. 
The peculiar character of this conflict lies in the 
fact that the same men are members of both 
organisms, and the law of each claims dominion 
over them. When a man has once come into 
the kingdom of God, has seen the beauty of the 
King, and has felt the power of love, this new 
life becomes the most cherished treasure of his 
soul, and by its own vital force asserts its domin- 
ion. At the same time this man, as subject also 
in the kingdom of the world, must take his place 
in the world and do his work in society. But 
inasmuch as the law of society still remains the 
law of the world, which is firmly intrenched in 
industrial and social institutions, when the sub- 



OF THE GOSPEL 235 

jects of the kingdom of God come into this 
complex social life, of which they are still an 
organic part, they come perforce into conflict 
with the laws of the kingdom of the world. 
They must either act according to the old social 
laws, and outrage their conscience, or else stand 
by their conscience and commit social and 
industrial suicide ; or, as is probably the case 
with the majority, adopt the laws of the world, 
and strive to still their conscience by attempting 
to mitigate the more glaring evils of worldliness, 
and color them a little with the halo of the 
heavenly kingdom's love. 

Nothing at the present day so hinders the 
progress of the kingdom of God as this persist- 
ence of the old law of the world in social institu- 
tions. And the time is coming when it must give 
way. Eventually Christians must either with- 
draw from the world or conquer it wholly. No 
one who comprehends at all the nature and power 
of Christianity will doubt which is to be. When the 
new kingdom began on earth, it found the law of 
the kingdom of the world dominant. It could not 
be expected to overthrow this at once ; the leaven 
must have time to spread. It did make the 
attempt, however, within three hundred years, 
when the Catholic church, as an earthly organi- 
zation of the kingdom of God, entered into 
conflict with the kingdom of the world. But 



236 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

this was done under a misconception of the inner 
nature of the contest. The church adopted, first 
the weapons, and then the law, of the world, and 
ended by itself becoming a worldly kingdom 
fighting for supremacy among other worldly 
kingdoms. The true kingdom of God had not 
yet gained strength enough to change the old 
constitution of society. 

But this kingdom has been quietly growing 
through the centuries. Its nature is becoming 
ever more clearly understood in the midst of 
God's historical discipline, and its real power is felt 
today over a wider range of life than ever before. 
Perhaps the time has not yet come when the 
new kingdom can overthrow the old, drive the 
law of selfishness out of social institutions, and 
incorporate the new law of love. But that day 
is approaching, and will surely come. Just how 
soon it will come depends, not upon God, for he 
has always been doing his utmost to bring it to 
pass, but upon the fidelity of the children of the 
kingdom to its principles, and upon the courage 
and wisdom with which they conduct the warfare 
against the kingdom of the world. The conflict 
will not cease until the kingdom of God triumphs. 
Already the expansive power of the gospel has 
occasioned great social upheavals and overturn- 
ings. It is destined to work yet greater revolu- 
tions. For this struggle is the meaning of the 



OF THE GOSPEL 237 

world's history, and is shaping its course. Some- 
times quiescent beneath the surface, recuperating 
the exhausted forces, ever and again breaking out 
in fierce open battle at the world's historical crises, 
still the mighty combat wages and yet shall wage. 
This is the coming world-struggle, this fight of 
the kingdom of God to dominate the institutional 
life of mankind. The kingdom already is gain- 
ing strength for victory. As surely as it is 
the right kingdom for humanity, and contains its 
highest good — and that is as sure as that God, 
whose nature the kingdom expresses, is right — 
just so surely there must come a radical transfor- 
mation of society, in which the law of this king- 
dom shall supplant the law of the kingdom of 
the world. Then shall be fulfilled the divine 
ideal of the future which was the hope of the 
Hebrew prophets, even when the powers of the 
world were strongest ; then shall be realized the 
divine vision of John the apostle, when, exiled 
by the kingdom of the world, he looked into the 
future and saw the day when that kingdom — not 
"kingdoms" — had become the kingdom of our 
Lord and of his Christ; then shall be reached 
that consummation which has been the dream of 
prophets and seers in all ages, 

" That one far-off divine event 
Toward which the whole creation moves." 1 

1 It is well to call attention again to the fact that this triumph 
of Christianity is the sublime assumption of the gospel itself, and 



238 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

This will be the triumph of the Son of man, 
when he shall come in glory. The kingdom that 
he founded in lowliness and apparent defeat, but 
with sublime faith in its ultimate success, will have 
vindicated its divine power and its Founder's 
true perception of the deepest needs of humanity. 
What more there will be in the coming of the 
Son of man we do not know. It seems probable 
that he will come in this final triumph, as he has 
in former partial triumphs, by way of some great 
social upheaval, which will constitute the ultimate 
crisis of history and mark the death throes of the 
kingdom of the world. But it is hardly worth 
while to attempt to rend the veil of the future 
that we may see the circumstances accompanying 
the end. The language of Scripture is figurative 
and vague with reference to everything except 
the fact itself. And nothing else is of serious im- 
portance. In view, however, of the commentary 
of the past eighteen hundred years, it is fairly 
certain that this result will be accomplished as a 
part of the historical process itself, and not by 
some spectacular event wholly outside of organic 
connection with the previous development of the 
kingdom. The day of the deus ex machina is past. 

that no attempt is here made to prove it. See Introduction, pp. 
xxiv-xxvi. The only thing attempted here is to point out the char- 
acter of the conflict and the direction which it will take. An 
adequate treatment of the subject would of course require a 
much fuller discussion than can be entered into in this outline. 



OF THE GOSPEL 239 

Such is the future of the kingdom; but 
how about its consummation ? Properly speak- 
ing, there is no consummation. It is an ever- 
lasting kingdom ; of it there shall be no end. 
This triumph of the kingdom marks, however, 
the consummation of the age — the age in 
which it was founded, and which is character- 
ized by the dominance of the kingdom of the 
world and the new kingdom's growing strength. 
What will come after this age we know only 
inferentially. Just as with the individual the 
very process of living the new life brings its own 
intrinsic reward in the form of Christlike char- 
acter and richer life, so also with the kingdom 
will the next age be the logical and necessary 
outcome of its own nature as manifested in 
the course of its development. The desire of 
the human mind for definiteness here, for the 
compassing of the end, will not be satisfied ; for 
there is no end. We have left the realm of finite 
time, and passed beyond the limits of finite 
thought, out into the eternities of God which 
conceal the beginning and the end from our most 
searching gaze. It is well so. In this the divinity 
of the kingdom again manifests itself. Its last 
message, from as far into the future as the human 
mind can reach, is that the highest good of man 
is not a fixed state, but still a growth and a 
becoming. 



CHAPTER III. 

CONCLUSION. 

Looking back now at the whole process which 
we have tried to describe, and the conclusions 
reached, it is hoped that the significance of the 
matter set forth is plain. The author of this 
volume certainly does not make any claim to the 
original discovery of the nature of the movement 
that has been going on, or to an exclusive appre- 
ciation of its meaning, although he has nowhere 
seen it described in the systematic form here 
given it. 1 Detached perceptions of it appear 
here and there, and the ideas are fast making 
their way as a part of intelligent Christian think- 
ing everywhere. Indeed, it is surprising how 
rapidly the conditions of religious thought are 
changing, and from how many different sources 
come words which show that men are dealing 
with the problem discussed in the foregoing 

1 Since writing these words the author has read Harnack's 
great work, in which the historical aspects of the subject here 
treated are so clearly brought out. While Harnack does not 
directly discuss the question either of the recovery or the restate- 
ment of the gospel, yet his views concerning both are very evi- 
dent. Harnack's later lectures, "What is Christianity?" come 
nearer the core of the matter. 

240 



OF THE GOSPEL 241 

pages. An attempt has here been made to bring 
these current ideas into definite expression and 
give to the subject the importance that it de- 
serves. 

The significance of the matter for the theo- 
logical world is of such far-reaching import that 
without exaggeration it may be compared to the 
revolution wrought by Kant in philosophy, and 
by Copernicus in astronomy. 1 It will be inter- 
esting to recall Kant's words : 

In metaphysical speculations it has always been assumed 
that all our knowledge must conform to objects ; but every 
attempt from this point of view to extend our knowledge 
of objects a priori by means of conceptions has ended in 
failure. The time has now come to ask whether better 
progress may not be made by supposing that objects must 

conform to our knowledge Our suggestion is similar 

to that of Copernicus in astronomy, who, finding it impos- 
sible to explain the movements of the heavenly bodies on 
the supposition that they turned round the spectator, tried 
whether he might not succeed better by supposing the 
spectator to revolve and the stars to remain at rest. Let 
us make a similar experiment in metaphysics with per- 
ception. 

The revolution now going on in theology is 
like these in astronomy and philosophy in that 
it radically changes the center of things in the 
science affected. Ever since the inception of 

*It is hardly necessary to state that the author does not mean 
that the importance of his own production is to be compared to 
the work of Kant and Copernicus ; the reference is to the change 
in thought just referred to as becoming so common. 



242 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

theology the gospel has been made to revolve 
about philosophy. Or, at the very best, philoso- 
phy has constituted an independent center co- 
ordinate with the gospel, and the two have revolved 
about each other. Sometimes, as at the first, this 
philosophy has come from outside sources ; at 
other times it has been found within authorized 
Christianity, in the theology that had itself become 
a speculative system. From the days of the 
origin of theology, when the historical Jesus was 
displaced by the philosophical Logos, and the 
heavenly Father was transformed into a meta- 
physical idea, up to the present time, the philo- 
sophical domination has continued in Chris- 
tianity. Each generation has taken up the process 
where the preceding generation left off, and has 
added theological cycle to epicycle in the hope 
of reconciling the new knowledge with the old 
system. But the discrepancies have finally become 
so pronounced as to make it evident that the 
trouble is not one of accidental aberrations, but 
that something is fundamentally wrong in the 
system itself. Theology, according to the old 
method, has often proved a failure. Instead of 
leading the life of the church, it has lagged 
behind and become a burden. Its whole course is 
marked by arid stretches of acrimonious intel- 
lectualism that have misrepresented the gospel 
of Jesus and weakened its power. 



OF THE GOSPEL 243 

The time has now come when it is worth while 
to see whether better success may not be achieved 
by a change of center ; and, instead of supposing 
the gospel to revolve about philosophical dogmas, 
to make these revolve about the historical Jesus 
of Nazareth. Each generation, instead of start- 
ing with the theological conclusions of a former 
time, will thus be sent back for itself to the gospel 
of Jesus, and will state this gospel de novo as often 
as changing conditions make it advisable to do so. 
Superficial theological makeshifts will disappear, 
along with the false system which made them 
necessary, and that real harmony will be brought 
to light which always manifests itself when the 
true center is found. 

In every department of knowledge this emer- 
gence of harmony is the strongest proof that the 
right theory has been discovered ; the phenomena 
are satisfactorily explained. The best evidence 
that a certain key is the right one is that it turns 
the bolt of the lock. The best and only proof 
that the right key has been discovered for the 
decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics is 
that they make sense when interpreted by it. 
The demonstration of the truth of the Copernican 
system is that it reveals harmonious order in the 
movements of the heavenly bodies. In like man- 
ner, the best proof that the new theological center 
here contended for is the true one lies in the 



244 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

fact that this theory satisfactorily explains the 
phenomena of the religious and theological world 
and reduces them to harmony. It does this both 
in the historical and in the practical realms. 

Historically, it accounts for the course taken 
by Christianity, and especially by Christian dog- 
matics, throughout its development, as well 
as for the condition of things existing at the 
present time in the religious world. By it is made 
clear the real nature of the gospel, and of theology, 
and the legitimate relations of the two. The 
early powerful influence of the gospel before the 
theological process began is explained. We 
understand also why it took so strong a hold upon 
the thinking of the second and immediately suc- 
ceeding centuries, as it transformed itself into a 
welcome philosophy of salvation, founded upon 
divine revelation. We see how, along with the 
dogmatic system, there grew up the congenial 
institution of the Catholic church, which divided 
with it the allegiance of men, and how these 
two, the church and theology, became the dis- 
ciplinary forces during the long period of the 
development of the Germanic peoples. But we 
perceive also at what fatal cost this conquest was 
made; how the transformation of the Christian 
faith into a semi-pagan philosophy, and the con- 
version of the Spirit-filled church into a worldly 



OF THE GOSPEL 245 

institution, resulted in a disastrous depotentiali- 
zation of Christianity, and changed its essential 
nature. It is easy to understand, therefore, why 
the conversion of the world to this kind of a reli- 
gion should leave Christian society half pagan 
and produce such deep-seated and widespread 
misconception of what it means to be a Christian. 
The whole condition of things in the modern 
world also is explained by this view. The re- 
discovery of the gospel in the reopened Bible 
led to the great practical Reformation of the 
sixteenth century, when the new reality-seeking 
spirit began to make itself felt in religion. It 
failed to do more, at first, than reform the glar- 
ing abuses of the church and reassert the prin- 
ciple of salvation by faith in Jesus, as set forth 
in the New Testament. The old dogmatic en- 
tanglements remained, and theology quickly ac- 
quired increased importance when it was left 
to monopolize the attention hitherto shared with 
the church. Even then trouble might not have 
arisen if the knowledge emphasized had been 
contemporary knowledge. But it was that of 
the Greek and Roman world. Meanwhile the 
modern spirit had created a new knowledge, 
built up by the new scientific method, and had 
made the ancient culture obsolete. During 
the Middle Ages, theology had maintained its 
hold by perpetuating the ancient culture with 



246 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

which it was bound up, accomplishing this espe- 
cially through the Aristotelian philosophy and 
the Ptolemaic cosmology. Then suddenly the 
whole ancient structure sank out of sight. Yet 
the Protestant theology insisted upon clinging to 
it and trying to bring it back to a place in the 
modern world. The result is theological confu- 
sion and controversy, in which is being waged 
the last conflict between two civilizations and 
two bodies of culture. 

Meanwhile two hundred years before the open 
Bible had produced an evangelical movement ac- 
cording to the spirit of the gospel, which expressed 
itself in practical missionary activity at home and 
abroad, but without any adequate theological 
leadership. Along with this movement, although 
independent of it, there arose a scientific study 
of the Scriptures that has produced a new bibli- 
cal knowledge. It has now been discovered that 
the theological system which has been claiming 
sanctity is not to be found in the Bible at all. 
Meanwhile the new science of church history 
comes in and tells us where this theology came 
from : that it attached itself to the gospel during 
the progress of the centuries, and has nothing 
divine about it except the halo cast over it by 
the gospel which it professes to set forth. Here 
is disclosed the condition of things that has di- 
vorced theology from the life of the church and 



OF THE GOSPEL 247 

given rise to the movements and parties of the 
modern religious world. But in the midst of all 
the currents and countercurrents, we see ever 
more clearly the advance of the main stream of 
progress — a stream gaining in definiteness and 
volume every day, drawing the lesser currents 
into itself in increasing numbers, and moving 
forward with resistless, because divine, force to- 
ward a great theological reformation which shall 
overthrow the first and oldest heresy that 
changed the gospel of salvation into a system of 
metaphysical philosophy, and which shall set 
Christianity free to leave the culture of the ancient 
world behind it and enter untrammeled into 
modern life on a new career of conquest. All 
of this historical process of Christianity becomes 
plain as we stand at the new center and look out 
upon it. 

Practically, the theological theory here ad- 
vocated commends itself by putting its adherents 
into closer touch with God and with humanity. 
Returning the gospel to its rightful jurisdiction 
over the conscience and the will, instead of mak- 
ing it chiefly a matter of the intellect, it brings 
theology back from the clouds of scholastic specu- 
lation into a living world. It sends a man with new 
determination to the Bible, to learn more of Jesus 
and his divine way of salvation. It urges him to 



248 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

a new study of history in the hope of a clearer 
understanding of Christian truth through its mani- 
festation in the historical development. It puts 
him into sympathy with present-day life in all of 
its aspects, and impels him to seek a better un- 
derstanding of social conditions and needs, be- 
cause the world is God's and the object of his 
redemptive work. Thus touching a living God 
and a present world, and seeking to give a new 
incarnation to the divine Spirit of Jesus, men are 
forced forward by an irresistible impulse to bring 
the world to God. The proverbial influence of 
theology, at least ever since those first days when 
it had vital meaning, has been to remove its vo- 
taries from the world of affairs. Here is a the- 
ology that will give a man no rest until it has 
sent him forth to the age in which he lives with 
Jesus' message of salvation. Theology becomes 
a means to an end, and not an end in itself. 

In this theology the modern spirit is given an 
opportunity in religion such as it has enjoyed in 
other realms, to turn away from the traditional 
and hypothetical back to real conditions and 
vital issues. Religious reality is here set forth. 
We see again the age-long struggle between sin 
and righteousness, centering about Him to whom 
we are ever forced to look as the one who alone can 
lead the way to victory. Salvation is again a real 
deliverance from sin, not some judicial or meta- 



OF THE GOSPEL 249 

physical fiction. The living Father, the personal 
Savior, the ever-present Spirit are restored to the 
position assigned them in the New Testament, but 
so long usurped by a metaphysical Trinity and a 
speculative Christology. The return of theology 
to religious reality and to the accomplishment of 
its mission in the world, which results from the 
adoption of the view advocated, is a strong proof 
that the right theory has been found. 

We need have no expectation that this new 
theological adjustment will save the world. No 
theology can do that. The tendency of human 
nature to sin will still remain. The forces of evil 
will not have abated their determined activity. 
But it will be something, it will be much, to have 
removed the artificial hindrances to the spread of 
Christianity, and again leave the divine gospel 
unfettered to accomplish its mission in the world. 

The gospel of Jesus, as expressed in the New 
Testament, and especially in the evangelical nar- 
ratives, is the faith once for all delivered to the 
saints, and constitutes the permanent Christian 
message, set forth in living terms that every gen- 
eration can understand. It will be the lasting 
glory of the nineteenth century that it led re- 
ligious thought back up the tortuous channel of 
ecclesiastical history to the clear perennial 
springs of Christian truth in the New Testament 



250 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT 

sources, and thus brought about the recovery 
of this gospel. Is it too much to expect 
that this task has been done once for all, and 
that the New Testament gospel may now remain 
the inalienable heritage of men in all ages ? It 
certainly is to be hoped that every generation 
will maintain the hard-won right to stand before 
the open Bible and read there the gospel mes- 
sage for itself, in all of the purity and power with 
which it came from the sacred lips of Him who 
gave it to the world at the cost of such infinite 
sacrifice. Then let each age do for itself what 
the first centuries did : so express this universal 
gospel in terms of contemporary thought and in- 
stitutional life that it shall exercise its maximum 
influence upon the men of that age, and bring to 
them in greatest fulness the blessings of God's 
salvation in Jesus Christ. 



INDEX. 



Alexandrian School, 34, 46. 

Anselm, 200. 

Apostles: as theologians, 116, 192; 

their gospel the same as Christ's, 

117; inspiration of, 190, 193. 
Apostles' Creed, 32. 
Aristotle, 3, 61 note, 246. 
Art and literature: realism in, 6, 7. 
Asceticism, 61 note. 
Astronomy, 3, 5. 
Atonement, 57 ff., 63, 172, 198 ff. 
Augsburg Confession, 77. 
Augustine, 39, 76, 77, 80, 84, no, 

11S, 208. 
Authority, 49, 50, 72, 79, 81 ff., 191 f., 

194, 227. 

Baur, 102, 106. 

Bible: place of in Lutheran Refor- 
mation, 79, 81 ff., 93; place of in 
Protestantism, 83 ; confusion of with 
theology, 83, 84, 85, 91, 109, no, 
170, 171, 172 ; place of in nineteenth- 
century reformation, 92 ff. ; popular 
reopening of, 95 ff . ; scientific reop- 
ening of, 98 ff . , 108 ; the two reopen- 
ings compared, no, in ; inspiration 
of, 106, 115 ff., 190; place of in 
Christianity, 188 ff., 194, 227. 

Calvin, 80, 85, no, 115. 

Canon of the New Testament, 31, 114. 

Carey, 96. 

Christianity ( see also " Gospel " ) : 
what is it, xix, xxi, 149, 187, 220; 
restatement of, xxiii, 112, 153 ff., 250 ; 
transformation of, 19 ff., 27 ff. ; per- 
sonal element in, 47 ff. ; propagation 
of, 160 ff., 231. 

Chiistology, 35 note, 36, 54, 65, 75 ff., 
120, 137, 172, 201 ff., 204, 224. 

Church fathers, 3. 

Church history, xxi f., 19, 90, 91, 109. 

Classes of educated people, 99 ff. 

Conflict between kingdom of God and 
kingdom of the world, 232 ff. 



Copernicus, 241. 
Council of Trent, 77. 

Deism, 98. 

Depravity, 210. 

Descartes, 6. 

Dogma, dogmatics (see also "Theol- 
ogy"), 27 ff., 32, 34, 35, 35 note, 
36 ff., 43, 64, 7s ff., 80, 91, 97, 109, 
"5, i47> 170, 172. 

"Enlightenment," 98. 

Eternal life, 213 ff. ; nature of, 214; 

entrance into, 214 ; continuance in, 

218 ff. ; result and reward, 221, 222 ; 

and the kingdom of God, 222 ff. 
Eternal punishment, 217, 218. 
Exegesis, xxi f. ; new science of, 90, 

ioa, 103 ff., 106, 179; attitude^toward 

New Testament, 112 ff. 

Faith, 41, 47, 135, 136, 215, 218, 219, 

225. 
Finney, 96. 
Forgiveness, 225; Christ's usage, S4 

ff., 115, 124; Paul's usage, 55, 56; 

theological usage, 156; compared 

with justification, 57, 65; nature of, 

216. 

God : Jesus' usage, 50 ff., 65, 115, 
120; Paul's usage, 50,51; theologi- 
cal usage, 52, 53; Author of sal- 
vation, 122, 205 ff. ; interpreted by 
Christ, 205 ; nature of, 205 ff . 

Gospel, The: obscuration of, xvff., 
40 ff., 42 ff.,46, 47 «•, 59 ff-, 64 ff., 66, 
91 ; finality of, xxv, 173 ; recoveryof, 
67 ff., 91, 97, 107, in, 249 ; re-eclipse 
of, 73 ff., 85 ff., 87, 88; fundamental 
nature of, 118, 135 ff., 138 ff., 144 ff., 
146 ff., 153, 197. 

Gospel narratives, 117, 189. 

Gnosis, 32, 36 note, 64, 113. 

Gnosticism, 32, 33 ff. 

Greek influence, 20, 28 ff., 38, 39, 
42 ff., 47, 64, 75, 78, 89. 

Greek philosophy, 28 ff., 32, 75. 



251 



252 



INDEX 



Harnack, 35 note, 61 note, 240 note. 

Hegel, 101. 

Herder, 102. 

Heresy, 23, 45, 60, 77, 88. 

Historical conditions explained, 244 ff, 

History, 7, 8. 

Holy Spirit, 49, 65, 82, 206. 

Idealism, 98, 101. 
Individualism, 72. 
Interpretation (see "Exegesis"). 
Irenseus, 34. 

Jesus Christ: the ultimate reality, 
xxiv-xxvi, 17, 108; displacement of, 
40 f., 53, 54, 64; the object of faith, 
41, 136; recovery of, 107, 108; death 
of, 119 ; mediator of salvation, 118, 
197 ff., 224; relation to God, 120, 
121, 201 ff., 204; nature of, 120, 121, 
201 ff., 204, 224; Lord of the king- 
dom, 125, 224; position in theology, 
187 ff., 197 ; the founder and founda- 
tion of Christianity, 189, 196 ; mis- 
sion of, 198 ff . ; commandments of, 
226 ; final coming of, 238. 

John, writings of, 114, 123, 129. 

Justification : Paul's usage, 55, 56, 191 ; 
theological usage, 56; compared 
with forgiveness, 57, 65, 191; 
Luther's revival of, 70, 115, 192. 

Kant, 101, 241. 

Kingdom of God, 123 ff., 222 ff. ; con- 
ditions of entrance, 124; life in, 
125, 222 ff. ; Christ ruler of, 125, 
224 ; law of, 125, 126, 225 ff. ; holiness 
in, 126 ; present and future, 127 ; as 
a society, 128, 197, 225, 229, 233 ff. ; 
organic nature of, 222, 233 ff. ; rela- 
tions within, 223 ff. ; subjects of, 
225, 233 ff. ; law of fulfilled, 227 ff. ; 
author of, 223, 224 ; same subjects 
as kingdom of humanity, 232 ff. ; 
progress and consummation of, 232 
ff. ; conflict with kingdom of the 
world, 232 ff. ; triumph of, 237, 238. 

Lateran council, 37, 76. 
Lessing, 102. 

Logos, 35 note, 53 ff., 65, 203. 
Love, 225 ff., 227 ff. 
Lowell, quotation from, 88. 
Luther, 70, 82, 93, no, 115. 
Lutheran Reformation, 14, 68 ff., 73, 
74, 114. 



Man : origin of, 207 ff. ; nature of, 
209 ff. ; recipient of eternal life, 207 
ff. ; a sinner, 210; as subject of 
kingdom, 225. 

Modern culture, 4 ff., 10, n, 85 ff.; 
and ancient theology, 86, 87, 101, 
177 ; and ancient culture, 98, 101. 

Modern spirit, The : in nature, 3 ff. ; 
in religion, 12 ff., 16, 248; and 
Lutheran Reformation, 86 ; and nine- 
teenth-century reformation, 89. 

Montanism, 26, 32, 60 note. 

Moody, 96. 

Moral element, 59 ff., 66. 

Neoplatonism, 35 note. 

New Testament (see also "Bible"), 

viii, 90, 112 ff., 189 ff., 195, 196. 
New Testament and dogma, 78. 
Nicaea, council of, 37 note. 
Nineteenth-century reformation, 16 ff . , 

89 ff., 97, 109, no, 249. 

Origen, 34, 36, 36 note, 43, 46, 101, 

103, no, 208. 
Orthodox, orthodoxy, 32, 34, 45, 91, 

100, 101, 144. 

Paul, 50, 55. 56, 84, 105, 114, 115, 172, 
191. 

Paul of Samosata, 37 note. 

Personal element: eclipse of, 47 ff., 
50 ff., 59, 65; restoration of, 248, 
249. 

Philosophy, 6, 28 ff., 44, 175, 242. 

Pistis, 32, 64, 113. 

Probabilism, 61 note. 

Protestantism, 72; distinctive princi- 
ples, 72, 73; antinomies of, 79; 
early changes in, 79, 81, 83, 85; 
union of, 107, 181, 182; weakness 
in, 162; theology of, 74, 80, 81, 86, 
87, 181, 182. 

Ptolemy, 3, 246. 

Rationalism, 98. 

Reality: ultimate in Christ, xii-xiv, 
17 ; search for in nature, 3 ff. ; 
search for in religion, 12 ff., 15 ff. ; 
loss of in religion, 13, 15 ; restora- 
tion of, 17, 248. 

Reformers, 74, 80. 

Regeneration, 214 ff. 

Renaissance, 3, 85. 

Repentance, 135, 215, 225. 



INDEX 



2 53 



Return to Christ's gospel, 17, 114 ff., 

185 ft. 
Revivals, 96, 07, 161, 178. 
Roman Catholic Church, 13, 20 ff., 37, 
Roman Catholic theology, 13, 16, 27 ff., 

77. 
Roman influence, 20, 27, 28, 38, 39, 42, 

48, 64, 69. 
Romanticism, 98. 
Rule of faith, the. 33, 36 note. 

Salvation, 41, 47 ff., 70, 78 ; nature of, 
123 ft., 129; as kingdom of God, 
123 ff., 222 ft.; conditions of, 124, 
130; as eternal life, 129 ff., 213 ff.; 
as the theme of the gospel, 197. 

Sanctification, 220. 

Schleiermacher, 101. 

Science, 4, 5. 

Secularization of worship, 42. 

Semler, 102. 

Sin: origin of, 211 ff . ; nature of, 
212 ff. 

Social relations, sociology, 9, 134, 

163, 197, 209, 222 ff., 225, 233 ff. 
Soul, origin of, 208. 
Sovereignty of God, 115, 206, 223, 
Strauss, 102, 106. 



Synoptic gospels, 123. 

Tennyson, quotation from, 175, 237. 

Terminology: of the four gospels, 
123, 129, 132; gospel not identical 
with, 133; of Jesus, 133, 134, 185; 
of theology, 148. 

Tertuliian, 34, 39, 80, 84. 

Theology (see also " Dogma' ') : and 
the biblical sciences, 90, 179; nature 
of, 154 ff., 180; subject-matter of, 
155 ff., 197; duty of, 156, 176, 178, 
184; presuppositions of, 157, 159, 
206; consequences of, 158, 159; 
value of, 159 ff., 164 ff., 167 ff.; 
preaching of, 160, 161, 162, 178; 
right of restatement. 170 ff., 173 ff. ; 
temporary {character of, 174, 175 ; 
need of restatement, 176 ff., 184, 
188; position of Jesus in, 1876".; 
the new center, 241 ff. ; practical 
influence of, 247, 248. 

Threefold morality, 61 note. 

Trinity, 36, 75 ff., 172. 

Vatke, 102. 
Voltaire, 101. 

Wesley, 96. 

Wordsworth, quotation from, 63, 



UG 6 1903 



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